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The  Sexes 

II 

HERE  AND  HEREAETER. 

BY. 

WILLIAM  Hr'HOLCOMBE,  M.D. 

Author  of  “Our  Childre7i  m Heaven,"  etc. 


“whom  cod  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder.” 


PHILADELPHIA 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  & CO 

1870. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  & CO., 

In  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  the  District  Coiut  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


Lippincott's  Press, 


PHILADELPHIA. 


ns.i- 

H Isis'S 


TO 

MY  MOTHER  AND  MY  WIFE, 

WHO, 

ABOVE  ALL  OTHERS, 

f/Al^S  CONTRIBUTED  TO  EXALT  AND  SPIRITUAL- 
IZE MY  CONCEPTIONS 

OF 

WOMAN. 


Ifii’ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

PACK 

Sex,  Love,  and  Marriage  Universal 13 

CHAPTER  II, 

Sex,  Love,  AND  Marriage  Eternal 48 

CHAPTER  III. 

What  our  Lord  Says  About  it 84 

CHAPTER  IV. 

What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it 125 

CHAPTER  V. 

Spiritual  Differences  between  Man  and  Woman.  164 

7 


8 


Contents. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

The  Spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  . . 204 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage 230 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Practical  Tendency  of  our  Views. 


261 


PREFACE. 


The  writings  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  I am 
confident,  are  destined  to  occupy  an  ever-increasing 
place  in  the  public  regard.  Some  who  are  unac- 
quainted w'ith  the  teachings  of  this  man,  suppose 
them  to  be  near  akin  to,  if  not  identical  with,  those 
of  modern  Spiritualism.  But  this  is  a great  mistake. 
Wide  and  irreconcilable  diffei'ences  exist  between 
the  two  systems — if  the  latter,  indeed,  may  be  called 
a system." 

The  belief  in  spirits,  both  good  and  bad — in 
angels  and  devils — and  in  the  pi'oximity  of  a spir- 
itual world  and  the  possibility  of  communicating 
with  it,  is  warranted  by  the  plain  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  and  is  the  common  inheritance  of  the  uni- 
versal Christian  Church.  He  who  denies  or  doubts 


9 


lo  Preyace. 

these  things,  has  already  forfeited  his  birthright,  and 
is  either  a rationalist  or  a skeptic. 

Skepticism,  Rationalism,  and  Spiritualism,  how- 
ever, are  but  protests  against  the  unreasonableness 
and  insufficiency  of  the  old  theologies.  They  are 
incidental  and  needful  to  human  progress ; the  way- 
stations,  but  not  the  abiding-places,  of  the  soul. 
The  New  Christian  faith  has  little  in  common  with 
these  phases  of  opinion.  It  rises  high  above  them 
all. 

The  three  central  doctidnes  in  Swedenborg’s  theo- 
logical system — doctrines  repeatedly  declared  by  him 
to  be  essential  and  fundamental — are  : 

The  supreme  and  absolute  Divinity  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ; 

The  Divinity,  and  plenary  inspiration,  of  the 
Sacred  Scripture ; and 

Regeneration  through  faith  in  Christ  and  a life 
accoiding  to  his  commandments. 

These  doctrines  are  seldom  met  with  in  the  teach- 
ings of  modern  Spiritualism.  Nor  have  Spiritual- 
ists, generally,  any  knowledge  of  the  other  distin- 
guishing doctrines  of  the  great  Swede — such  as 


Preface.  1 1 

those  of  Influx,  Order,  Degrees,  Correspondence, 
Heaven  and  Hell,  the  Spiritual  Sense  of  the  writ- 
ten Word,  and  the  doctrine  concerning  Conjugial 
Love. 

And  although  Swedenborg  professes  to  have  en- 
joyed open  intercourse  with  the  spiritual  world  for 
a period  of  nearly  thirty  years,  whereby  he  was 
enabled  to  reveal  the  great  facts  and  laws  of  that 
world,  yet  he  repeatedly  warns  his  readers  against 
such  intercourse,  and  shows  us  why  it  is  attended 
with  danger  to  men’s  souls.  And  those  who  accept 
his  teachings,  generally  regard  such  intercourse  as 
disorderl}',  against  the  Divine  interdict,  and  perilous 
to  a man’s  spiritual  welfare. 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  Sexes — here  and  here- 
after— no  man  has  ever  thought  so  profoundly  or 
Avritten  so  wisely  as  Swedenborg.  He  has  gone  to 
the  bottom  of  this  grand  theme.  He  has  made 
known  the  spiritual  causes  of  polygamy,  concu- 
binage, and  prostitution ; has  revealed  the  marvel- 
ous strivings  of  the  Divine  Providence  to  preserve 
in  man  the  conjugial  principle,  and  to  lead  him 
from  a greater  to  a lesser  evil,  when  it  cannot  lead 


1 2 Preface. 

him  from  evil  to  good ; and  has  unfolded  the  phi- 
losophy and  spiritual  uses  of  marriage,  and  the  true 
relation  of  the  sexes  to  each  other. 

And  for  the  benefit  of  the  New  Age,  whose  dawn 
we  already  witness — an  Age  in  which  the  Lord  in 
his  Divine  Humanity  shall  reign  supreme  in  the 
heaids  of  men — he  has  revealed  a doctrine  of  Con- 
jugial  Love  which  surpasses  in  beauty,  purity,  and 
practical  value,  anything  hitlierto  known  or  im- 
agined ' 

The  main  purpose  of  the  present  work  is  to  pop- 
ularize some  of  his  teachings  on  this  subject,  and 
to  lead  thoughtful  men  and  women  to  give  them  the 
consideration  they  deserve. 

“ He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear.” 

W.  H.  H. 


New  Orleans,  La. 


The  Sexes; 

HERE  AND  HEREAFTER. 


CHAPTER  I. 


SEX,  LOVE  AND  MARRIAGE  UNIVERSAL. 


ATURE,”  says  an  eloquent  prose  wri- 
ter, “ is  a System  of  Nuptials.” 

“Nature,”  echoes  a charming  poet — 


“Nature,  with  endless  being  rife, 

Parts  each  thing  into  ‘ him’  and  ‘ her;’ 
And  in  the  arithmetic  of  life 
The  smallest  unit  is  a pair.” 


“ Loves  and  marriages,”  writes  Dr.  Mason 
Good,  “ are  common  to  all  nature.  They 
exist  between  atom  and  atom,  and  the  philoso- 
pher calls  them  attraction.  They  exist  between 
congeries  and  congeries,  and  the  chemist  calls 

B 13 


14  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

them  affinity.  They  exist  between  iron  and 
the  loadstone,  and  every  one  denominates  them 
magnetism.” 

Another  acute  thinker,  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son, thus  formulates  the  same  beautiful  truth : 
“ An  inevitable  dualism  bisects  nature,  so  that 
each  thing  is  a half,  and  suggests  another  thing 
to  make  it  a whole;  as,  spirit,  matter;  man, 
woman ; odd,  even ; subjective,  objective ; in, 
out;  upper,  under;  motion,  rest;  )’ea,  nay. 
While  the  world  is  thus  dual,  so  is  every  one 
of  its  parts.” 

The  grandest  generalization  of  modern  sci- 
ence, is  thus  expressed  by  Hatch  in  his  Consti- 
tution of  Man  : 

“The  law  of  conjugality  is  the  basis  of  every 
force  in  nature.” 

Sex,  love,  and  marriage,  not  used  in  their 
common  and  restricted  sense,  but  in  their 
widest  and  philosophical  meanings,  are  the 
keys  to  all  the  phenomena  of  mind  and  matter. 
Every  object  in  natui'e  is  male  or  female ; and 
one  sex  is  always  complementary  to  the  other. 
Love  is  the  elective  affinity,  the  passional 
attraction  which  exists  between  these  comple- 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  15 

mentary  forms  or  sexes.  Marriage  is  the  union 
of  the  sexes,  producing  the  organization  of  all 
things,  whether  it  be  the  creation  of  the  indi- 
vidual or  the  perpetuation  of  the  species.  Sex 
is  the  universal  form ; love  the  universal  power 
or  force  ; and  marriage  the  universal  result. 

Grindon,  the  most  charming  of  English  sci- 
entific writers,  to  whom  we  are  deeply  indebted, 
has  thus  eloquently  expressed  the  great  truth 
of  universal  sex  and  marriage  : 

“ Underlying  every  phenomenon  of  the  mate- 
rial world  and  underlying  every  psychological 
occurrence,  there  is  found  a fixed  causative 
relation  of  Two  things  or  Two  principles,  as 
the  case  may  be  ; different  and  unequal,  yet  of 
such  a difference  and  such  an  inequality  that, 
like  man  and  woman — who  constitute  the  type 
and  interpretation  of  the  whole  of  nature  both 
visible  and  invisible — each  is  the  complement 
of  the  other ; one  being  gifted  with  energy  to 
act,  and  the  other  with  equal  energy  and  apti- 
tude to  r^act.  All  phenomena,  alike  of  matter 
and  of  mind,  resolve  into  this  dual  virUis. 
Whether  physical  or  spiritual,  animal  or  vege- 
table, Life  always  presents  itself  as  communi- 


1 6 The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

cated  through  one  simple  formula — the  recif- 
rocal  action  and  reaction  of  com^lementariesi' 

“ Binary  causes  lie  at  the  base  of  all  things. 
The  sun  and  moon  cast  their  light  upon  us,  the 
rain  falls  and  the  waves  roll,  the  spheres  pre- 
serve their  rotundity  and  persevere  in  their 
motions,  all  as  the  result  of  underlj’ing  dual 
forces.  The  fabric  of  nature,  like  its  phenom- 
ena, resolves  everywhere  into  dualities.  Land 
and  water,  male  and  female,  the  straight  line  and 
the  curve,  do  but  express  prominently  a univer- 
sal principle.  The  elements,  we  have  already 
seen,  are  almost  demonstrably  only  Two.” 

“ In  that  admirable  adaptation  and  aptitude 
of  things  to  act  and  react,  and  thus  to  enter 
into  a relation  of  which  marriage  is  the  highest 
exponent,  consists,  accordingly,  the  whole  prin- 
ciple of  living  action.  There  is  no  other  source 
of  phenomena  either  in  the  animated  or  inani- 
mate world ; and  wherever  it  brings  things  and 
natures  into  contact,  reciprocally  adapted  each 
to  the  other,  life  immediately  appears,  beautiful 
and  exuberant.  God  made  things  complement- 
ary on  purpose  that  they  should  unite,  and  open 
channels  wherein  his  life  should  have  new  out- 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  17 

lets.  Until  conjoined  and  until  they  have  opened 
such  new  channels,  they  are  everywhere  rest- 
less and  erratic.  Everywhere,  in  earth  and 
heaven,  equilibrium  comes  of  well-assorted 
marriage  or  union  of  complementaries,  and 
there  is  no  equilibrium  independent  of  it.” 

These,  advanced  truths,  foreseen  intuitively 
by  a few  poets  and  philosophers,  which  the 
present  science,  psychology  and  theology  can 
neither  appreciate  nor  utilize,  are  wrought  as 
foundation-stones  into  the  stupendous  system 
of  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  who  has  given  the 
world  the  elements  of  a new  science,  a new 
psychology,  a new  theology,  bearing  the  same 
relation  to  the  old  which  the  butterfly,  sporting 
in  the  golden  light  of  heaven,  bears  to  its  first 
unsightly  form  in  which  it  groveled  in  the  dust. 

All  forms  are  derivations  from  the  uncreated 
Substance.  All  causes  are  emanations  from 
the  First  Great  Cause.  Sex,  love  and  mar- 
riage are  universal  principles,  derived  from  the 
Supreme  Being  and  expressing  his  nature. 
The  laws  of  the  existence  of  the  Divine  Cre- 
ator are  impressed  upon  and  repeated  in  his 
creation.  Man,  the  central  figure,  was  created 
2 B * 


1 8 The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

in  His  own  express  “image  and  likeness.” 
“Man  is  nature  concentrated,”  says  Grindon, 
“ and  nature  is  man  diffused.”  Man  is  the  mi- 
crocosm or  little  universe,  the  perfect  miniature 
of  nature  the  macrocosm  or  the  great  universe. 
Both  reveal  the  character  and  mirror  forth  the 
glory  of  God.  Sex,  love,  and  marriage,  the 
fundamental  principles  underlying  both  man 
and  nature,  must  bear  upon  their  faces  the 
image  and  superscription  of  the  Divine  Love 
and  the  Divine  Wisdom. 

“ God  is  both  a man  and  an  immortal  maid,” 
says  an  old  Greek  h^^mn  in  one  of  the  Orphic 
fragments.  “ Male-female”  was  also  an  epi- 
thet frequently  applied  to  the  Supreme  Being 
by  the  subtle  intuition  of  Grecian  genius.  The 
Divine  Love  is  the  feminine,  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom the  masculine  principle  in  the  Divine 
nature.  They  are  inseparable,  coexistent,  co- 
animating, co-operating.  They  are  the  positive 
and  negative  poles  of  the  infinite  magnet.  Thej^ 
exist  and  are  perpetuated  by  their  action  and 
reaction  upon  each  other.  As  the  intensity  of 
each  pole  of  the  magnet  is  determined  by  the 
intensity  of  the  other,  so  the  state  of  the  Divine 


Sex^  Love  and  ALarriage  Universal.  19 

Love  determines  the  state  of  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom, and  vice  versd.  The  infinity  of  one  pro- 
duces and  reciprocates  the  infinity  of  the  other. 

The  activity  of  love  is  Goodness ; the  form 
of  wisdom  is  Truth.  Divine  Goodness  and 
Divine  Truth  are  the  sexes  of  God,  yearning 
for  each  other  with  infinite  attraction,  united 
together  in  the  divinest  marriage.  Their  recip- 
rocal action  is  the  cause  of  all  life  and  love  and 
light.  The  offspring  of  their  marriage  is  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  and  all  that  is  therein. 

The  magnet  illustrates  with  great  beauty  the 
fundamental  law  of  creation.  Its  male  and 
female  elements,  known  as  its  positive  and 
negative  poles,  are  concentrated  toward  its  ex- 
tremities, but  cannot  be  separated.  If  you 
break  a bar  of  magnetic  Iron  in  two,  you  will 
not  find  one  portion  positive  and  the  other  neg- 
ative ; but  each  fragment  is  a perfect  magnet  as 
before,  with  its  male  and  female  elements  as- 
suming the  old  relations  to  each  other.  The 
minutest  atom  of  a magnet  becomes  a magnet 
itself  when  separated  from  its  parent  one.  So 
is  the  image  of  God  repeated  and  perpetuated 
in  every  object  he  strikes  off  from  his  own  sub- 


20  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

stance,  and  then  reanimates  with  his  breath. 
Therefore  it  is  that  in  every  dewdrop,  every 
crystal,  every  organic  atom,  in  every  created 
form,  natural  or  spiritual,  the  male  and  female 
elements  stand  opposite  each  other ; holding 
each  other  in  place,  inspiring  each  other  with 
love,  impelling  each  other  to  use ; building  up 
from  invisible  bases  the  material  and  spiritual 
containants  of  life. 

As  the  loadstone  lying  in  the  bosom  of  the 
earth  becomes  a miniature  magnet,  receiving 
power  from  the  great  magnet  of  which  the 
globe  itself  consists,  so  does  man,  receiving  his 
life  from  God,  by  a similar  induction  become  a 
finite  form  of  his  Love  and  Wisdom.  Passing 
into  the  human  being,  these  forces  become  the 
will  and  the  understanding  of  man — the  will 
being  an  organ  receptive  of  the  Divine  Love, 
and  the  understanding  an  organ  receptive  of  the 
Divine  Wisdom.  Like  the  Love  and  Wisdom 
of  their  Divine  prototype,  they  reciprocally 
yearn  for  each  other  in  the  heavenly  marriage  ; 
and  when  the  understanding  knows  and  be- 
lieves the  Divine  Truth,  and  tlie  will  obeys 
and  loves  the  Divine  Will  or  Goodness,  man 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  21 

becomes  an  image  of  God,  his  son,  and  an 
heir  to  his  kingdom. 

Every  human  being,  man  or  woman,  is,  like 
the  Lord  himself,  in  a certain  sense  bi-sexual, 
having  both  masculine  and  feminine  qualities, 
which  are  to  be  beautifully  blended  or  equili- 
brated in  a spiritual  marriage,  which  is  regen- 
eration. This  spiritual  duality  of  each  individ- 
ual is  represented  in  the  physical  duality  of  the 
human  body.  It  is  composed  of  two  similar 
halves  united  at  the  median  line,  which  are 
positive  and  negative  or  male  and  female  in 
relation  to  each  other.  The  entire  brain  and 
nervous  system,  with  their  wonderful  appen- 
dages of  muscles  and  bones,  are  precisely  alike 
on  both  sides  of  the  body.  We  have  two  eyes, 
two  ears,  two  hands,  two  feet,  two  breasts ; and 
where  there  is  apparently  only  one  organ,  as 
the  nose  or  mouth,  it  is  composed  of  two  halves 
precisely  alike  and  accurately  adjusted  or  mar- 
ried to  each  other.  There  are  other  marriae^es 
also  in  the  body ; between  organ  and  organ, 
between  function  and  function,  between  the 
nervous  fluid  and  the  blood,  between  the  heart 
and  the  lungs,  between  the  cerebrum  and  the 


22  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

cerebellum,  etc.,  too  abstruse  for  popular  com- 
prehension ; but  confirming  the  exclamation  of 
the  Psalmist,  that  we  are  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fully made,  and  justifying  the  remark  of  Galen, 
that  the  anatomy  of  the  human  body  is  a sub- 
lime hymn  in  honor  of  the  Deity. 

The  crowning  act  of  the  Divine  mercy  and 
glory  was  the  production  of  two  human  forms, 
each  external  to  the  other,  each  the  image  of 
God,  each  a microcosm  embodying  all  the  mys- 
teries of  nature,  and  yet  with  their  relative  prop- 
erties and  affinities  so  proportioned  and  adjusted 
that  each  should  be  the  complement,  the  ideal, 
the  life,  the  all  of  the  other.  Man  and  woman 
are  bi-sexual  in  themselves,  but  in  relation  to 
each  other  they  are  complementary.  In  man 
the  masculine  element  is  the  positive  and  the 
feminine  element  is  the  negative  principle, 
while  in  woman  it  is  exactly  the  reverse. 
Therefore  it  is,  by  a law  common  both  to  spirit 
and  matter,  that  man  is  attracted  by  the  femin- 
ine element  in  woman,  and  woman  is  attracted 
by  the  masculine  element  in  man.  From  this 
reversal  of  the  spiritual  poles  of  life,  come  all 
the  passions  and  activities  of  the  world ; the 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  23 

charms  of  home,  the  dream  of  hope,  the  purple 
light  of  love  ; the  subtlest  joys  of  earth  and  the 
eternal  bliss  of  heaven. 

Every  object  in  the  universe  is  masculine  or 
feminine.  The  attractions  between  these  com- 
plementary forms,  under  the  generic  title  of 
love,  produce  all  the  motions  and  organizations 
of  spirit  and  matter.  The  union  or  marriage 
of  these  elements  is  the  vital  principle  of  crea- 
tion, the  secret  cause  why  one  thing  coheres  to 
another,  atom  to  atom,  world  to  world,  and  all 
things  to  God.  It  is  well  for  us  to  contemplate 
the  universality  of  these  truths. 

Spirit  and  matter  hold  to  each  other  the  rela- 
tion of  positive  and  negative  or  masculine  and 
feminine.  The  Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  the 
face  of  the  abyss.  Spirit  is  the  living,  active, 
impregnating  element ; matter  the  passive  and 
receptive.  Spiritual  forces  flow  into  matter, 
which  gives  them  form  and  subsistence.  Brings 
them  into  objective  life,  as  the  mother  does  the 
babe,  and  nourishes  them  from  an  inexhaustible 
bosom.  Therefore  the  spiritual  and  natural 
worlds  are  as  eternal  and  as  inseparable  as  the 
love  and  wisdom  of  God.  They  coexist  and 


24  The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

correspond,  being  reciprocally  active  and  re- 
active ; and  one  without  the  other  is  impossible. 
“The  Earth,”  says  Homer,  “is  the  wife  of 
Heaven.” 

The  Sun  and  the  Earth  are  positive  and 
negative  to  each  other ; and  it  is  to  their  action 
and  reaction  that  all  mundane  phenomena  are 
due.  The  sun  impregnates  the  terrestrial  at- 
mospheres with  his  masculine  qualities,  and 
the  earth  conceives  and  brings  forth  all  the 
wonders  of  the  elemental  sphere,  and  all  the 
forms  of  mineral,  vegetable  and  animal  life. 
When  the  earth  turns  herself  away  from  the 
solar  orb,  which  is  called  in  Scripture  the 
bridegroom,  the  result  is  darkness  and  cold; 
but  when  she  advances  to  his  ardent  em- 
brace, he  fires  her  heart  with  the  warmth 
and  glory  of  life,  and  colors  her  Spring 
with  silver  and  green  and  her  Autumn  with 
purple  and  gold. 

Heat  and  Light  are  the  positive  and  negative 
solar  elements  which  represent  and  make  oper- 
ative the  Divine  Love  and  the  Divine  Wisdom 
in  nature.  Heat  is  the  feminine  principle 
which  expands  and  opens : Light  is  the  mas- 


Sex^  Love  and  Ma^-riage  Universal.  25 

culine  principle,  which  penetrates  and  illumines. 
They  co-operate  in  the  creation  and  preserva- 
tion of  all  earthly  things.  They  are  the  love 
and  wisdom,  the  affection  and  thought,  the 
man  and  woman,  of  the  elemental  sphere. 
Magnetism  and  Electricity  are  their  counter- 
parts or  analogues  in  a different  field,  holding 
to  each  other  a similar  relation,  and  having 
each  in  itself  a still  further  combination  of 
positive  and  negative  or  masculine  and  feminine 
principles. 

Land  and  Water  under  different  forms  are 
repetitions  of  the  same  eternal  truth.  Water 
is  the  male  or  positive  element,  from  whose  sub- 
stance the  Land,  or  female  element,  was  taken 
or  deposited.  The  Land  is  wholly  negative 
and  unfruitful  without  the  impregnating  and 
fructifying  power  of  the  Sea,  which  draws 
slowly  back  from  the  purple  hills  all  he  had 
given,  and  rising  on  the  wings  of  the  invisible 
wind,  sinks  softly  again  in  innumerable  showers 
upon  the  bosom  of  his  happy  bride. 

Instinctively  recognizing  this  truth,  man  has 
always  called  the  earth  his  “mother;”  and 

Homer,  the  first  of  poets,  expressing  the  most 
c 


26  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

ancient  philosophic  opinion,  styles  water  “ the 
father  of  all  things.”  “ Earth,”  sa3^s  Lucretius, 
“ impregnated  by  the  liquid  rains,  produces  the 
luxurious  crops  and  the  jo^'ous  groves ; pro- 
duces the  race  of  men  and  all  the  living  tribes.” 
Rivers  in  all  languages  are  spoken  of  as  males, 
as  Father  Tiber,  Father  Thames,  Mississippi — 
the  Father  of  Waters.  The  land  of  Egypt  was 
represented  by  Isis,  and  her  great  river,  the 
Nile,  was  represented  by  Osiris,  the  husband 
of  Isis.  And  the  poetic  myth  of  Venus  rising 
all-beautiful  from  the  sea,  appears  to  be  an- 
other version  of  the  old  stor}^  of  Eve  abstracted 
from  the  breast  of  Adam,  or  the  feminine  prin- 
ciple waking  into  separate  consciousness  and 
assuming  its  objective,  complementary^  and  at- 
tractive relationship  to  the  masculine. 

The  masculine  and  feminine  principles  are 
detected  in  minerals  by  their  relation  to  the 
electro-positive  or  the  electro-negative  pole  of 
the  batteity.  This  binary  combination,  this 
essential  duality  of  form  and  function,  this  sex- 
uality, so  obvious  in  its  simplest  expression, 
pervades  the  most  complex  structures,  even 
where  it  eludes  the  research  of  the  chemist  and 


Sex,  Love  and  ]\Iarriage  Universal.  27 

is  visible  only  to  the  clairvoyant  eye  of  the  poet 
and  the  philosopher. 

The  sexuality  of  plants  is  so  apparent  that 
they  have  been  divided  into  phanerogamic  and 
cryptogamic,  or  plants  with  open  marriages 
and  plants  with  concealed  or  not  clearly  dis- 
coverable marriages.  In  some  forms  of  the 
vecfetable  kingdom  the  sexes  are  as  distinct  to 
view  as  in  animals ; and  their  interchanges  of 
love  are  wafted  to  and  fro  by  the  feet  and 
wings  of  insects  and  the  whispering  currents 
of  the  concerting  winds.  When  a bee  has 
gathered  honey  from  a male  flower,  he  will 
alight  the  next  time  only  on  the  female  flower 
of  the  same  species,  where  he  shakes  from  his 
body  the  golden  dust  which  impregnates  the 
receptive  plant  with  the  aromal  life  of  her 
distant  lover. 

The  higher  the  animal  in  the  scale  of  devel- 
opment, the  more  complicated  is  the  sexual 
apparatus,  and  the  nearer  to  the  human  type  are 
the  passions  which  its  evolution  engenders.  In 
the  gentle  and  beautiful  birds  that  bathe  their 
plumage  in  the  light  of  heaven  and  fill  the 
forests  with  their  songs,  we  find  the  nearest 


28  The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

approach  to  conjugal  affection  and  fidelity. 
The  great  difierence  between  the  animals  and 
man,  proving  the  immortality  of  man  and  the 
pure  materiality  of  the  animal  kingdom,  is 
this : that,  while  the  actions  and  re-actions 
between  the  human  sexes  are  independent  of 
time  and  space,  they  seem  to  be  governed  in 
animals  by  periodic  and  cosmic  laws,  such 
as  direct  the  mechanical  movements  of  the 
tides  or  the  involuntary  unfolding  of  the 
flowers. 

The  ancients  understood  the  sexuality  of  all 
things  better  than  we  do.  Keightley  furnishes 
one  key  to  the  mythological  stories  of  the 
Old  World,  when  he  says  that  the  Greeks  de- 
lighted to  represent  the  origin,  union  and 
changes  of  the  various  parts  of  nature  under 
the  guise  of  love,  matrimony  and  birth.  Causes 
with  them  were  parents,  and  effects  children. 
“The  division  of  all  mythological  beings  into 
masculine  and  feminine,”  says  IMiiller,  “can- 
not have  been  in  any  event  the  result  of  acci- 
dent.” It  was  rather  an  intuitive  recognition 
of  the  universality  of  a sexual  principle  per- 
vading all  spiritual  and  natural  things,  and 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  29 

also  of  the  great  truth  that  the  spiritual  and 
natural  worlds  do  not  differ  in  their  forms,  but 
only  in  the  substance  of  which  their  forms  are 
made. 

This  great  principle  of  sexuality,  flowing 
from  the  dual  nature  of  God  himself,  and  re- 
peated in  his  relation  to  his  Church — for  He 
is  the  Bridegroom  and  she  the  Bride  ; repeated 
in  the  will  and  the  understanding  of  man, 
which  are  to  be  conjoined  in  the  regenerate 
marriage ; repeated  in  the  forms  and  forces  of 
the  elemental  world,  in  the  structure  of  the 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  in  the  happy 
conjunction  of  human  sexes ; repeated  also  in 
the  relation  of  Religion  to  Science,  of  Church 
to  State,  of  the  sublime  to  the  beautiful  in 
cesthetics,  and  in  a thousand  other  instances 
which  it  would  take  volumes  to  elucidate  ; — this 
great  principle  descends  from  universals  to  par- 
ticulars, and  every  word  we  speak  and  every 
sound  we  make  has  a masculine  or  a feminine 
quality. 

The  letters  of  the  alphabet  have  their  sexes. 

The  vowels  are  feminine  and  the  consonants 

are  masculine  elements  of  speech.  The  vowels 
c ■» 


30  The  Sexes  j Here  and  Hereayter. 

are  soft,  rounded  and  fluent,  expressing  the 
affections;  the  consonants  are  harsh  and  fixed, 
limiting  the  sound  and  organizing  it  into  an 
expression  or  sign  of  our  ideas  or  thoughts. 
It  is  the  marriage  of  vowels  and  consonants 
which  produces  words.  Vowels  alone  produce 
only  sound.  Consonants  alone  cannot  be  ut- 
tered. The  consonant  and  the  vowel  corre- 
spond to  the  straight  and  the  curved  lines  of 
architecture  and  art,  which  are  the  elements  of 
all  form  and  beauty. 

Words  again  are  either  masculine  or  femi- 
nine. The  neuter  gender  acknowledges  only 
our  inability  to  distinguish  the  sex  of  the  word. 
In  some  words,  as  in  some  plants,  the  sexes  are 
united  in  the  same  individual.  In  the  com- 
pounding of  the  words  into  sentences  there  are 
two  great  classes  of  words,  styled  by  gramma- 
rians the  noun-word  and  the  verb-word,  which 
are  male  and  female  elements  of  thought,  and 
without  a marriacre  between  which  no  intelli- 

o 

gible  statement  is  possible.  The  division  of 
composition  into  prose  and  poetry  still  further 
represents  the  tendency  to  assume  the  male  and 
female  forms  ; for  prose,  like  speech,  is  the  organ 


Sex,  Lot)e  aitd  jSIarriage  Universal.  31 


of  thought,  and  poetry,  like  music,  is  the  organ 
of  emotion  and  affection. 

The  sound  or  tone  of  our  voices  represents 
the  state  of  our  affections : the  words  of  our 
speech  convey  our  thoughts  or  ideas.  When 
the  sound  and  the  sense  do  not  strike  upon  our 
minds  in  married  harmony,  we  know  intuitively 
that  the  hypocrite  does  not  feel  or  mean  what 
he  says.  Speech  and  music  also  are  relatively 
male  and  female.  Tennyson,  intuitively  pene- 
trating this  mystery,  declares  that  woman  must 
set  herself  to  man 

“Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words.” 

Music  is  the  organization  of  sound,  as  speech 
is  the  organization  of  words  ; and  the  same  laws 
of  sexuality  govern  in  both.  Bass  is  the  mas- 
culine and  soprano  is  the  feminine  element  in 
music,  which  must  be  married  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  highest  harmony.  The  great  truth 
that  each  human  being  is  bi-sexual,  or  has  both 
male  and  female  qualities  occupying  different 
relative  centres  in  man  and  woman,  is  beauti 
fully  illustrated  in  the  distinctions  between  the 
musical  sounds.  Woman’s  voice  divides  itself 


32  The  Sexes;  Here  aitd  Hereafter, 

into  soprano  and  contralto,  as  man’s  is  divided 
into  tenor  and  bass.  Soprano  is  the  voice  of 
woman’s  affection,  contralto  the  voice  of  her 
intellect.  Tenor  is  the  voice  of  man’s  affec- 
tion, and  bass  of  his  intellect.  Contralto  is  the 
male  voice  of  woman,  and  tenor  is  the  female 
voice  of  man. 

Music  is  pre-eminently  the  voice  of  the  affec- 
tions, charming  like  woman  the  most  savage 
breast.  It  is  the  subtlest  spiritual  agency  in 
nature,  whereby  the  very  breath  of  heaven  can 
penetrate  into  and  agitate  our  inmost  souls. 
“Music,”  says  Mrs.  Child,  “is  the  feminine 
principle,  the  heart  of  the  universe.  What  the 
tone  is  to  the  word,  what  expression  is  to  form, 
what  affection  is  to  thought,  what  the  heart  is 
to  the  head,  what  intuition  is  to  argument,  what 
religion  is  to  philosophy,  what  moral  influence 
is  to  power,  what  woman  is  to  man,  music  is 
to  the  universe.” 

In  illustration  of  the  above  it  may  be  affirmed 
that  the  state  of  music  in  any  age  or  country 
is  a fair  index  of  the  spirituality  or  the  spiritual 
potentiality  of  a people.  Barbarians  produce 
nothing  but  discords.  No  genuine  music  is 


Sex,  Love  and  Mai^riage  Universal.  33 

possible  among  a people  generally  addicted  to 
polygamy  or  concubinage.  The  unrivaled 
religious  music  of  Europe  is  due  to  the  chas- 
tening influences  of  Christianity,  and  to  the 
tender  worship  of  female  purity  and  beauty 
under  the  form  of  the  Holy  Virgin.  And  the 
present  advanced  and  advancing  state  of  mu- 
sical science,  is  the  best  omen  of  heavenly  influ- 
ences descending  upon  the  world,  and  the  best 
prediction  of  the  coming  reign  of  woman  and 
of  love. 

One  proof  that  the  creation  or  created  Word 
and  the  Bible  or  the  written  Word  of  God  have 
the  same  Divine  Author,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  same  universal  principle  of  organ- 
ization runs  through  them  both.  Like  every- 
thing emanating  from  God  and  bearing  his 
image,  the  Bible  has  male  and  female  elements 
blended  in  secret  and  divine  union.  Every 
concrete  thought  or  idea  in  the  Word  of  God, 
has  a feminine  and  a masculine  side  to  it,  one 
referring  to  the  emotional, the  other  to  the  intel- 
lectual sphere  of  life,  whether  the  subject  be 
the  Lord  himself,  his  spiritual  church  or  the 
individual  soul. 

3 


34  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  prove  or  even  to 
illustrate  this  wonderful  truth,  which  appears 
strange  and  mystical  to  those  who  deny  a spir- 
itual sense  to  the  Bible,  and  who  therefore 
cannot  understand  the  Scriptures  nor  the 
power  of  God.  The  dual  or  male-and-female 
structure  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Word,  is 
organic  and  universal.  It  has  been  clearly  re- 
vealed through  Swedenborg  for  those  who  have 
ears  to  hear.  Every  incident  and  verse  of  the 
Bible,  from  the  journeyings  of  the  patriarchs 
and  the  seemingly  trivial  ceremonies  of  the 
Jewish  law,  to  the  prayer-poems  of  the  Psalmist 
and  the  dark  sayings  of  the  prophet,  contain 
the  spiritual  wonders  of  the  married  will  and 
understanding,  and  of  the  vital  union  between 
the  Divine  Bridegroom  and  his  Church. 

The  Old  Testament  also  contains,  relatively 
to  the  New,  the  Wisdom-principle  or  the  mas- 
culine and  positive  element  of  revelation.  The 
New  Testament  is  the  revelation  of  the  femi- 
nine or  Love-principle.  Each  Covenant  is, 
again,  male  and  female  in  itself, — the  Law  rep- 
resenting the  masculine  and  the  Prophets  rep- 
resenting the  feminine  element  in  the  Jewish 


Sex,  Love  and  Ma7‘riage  Universal.  35 

dispensation ; while  the  Evangelists  are  the 
masculine  and  the  Apocalypse  the  feminine 
element  in  the  Christian  economy.  Moses  and 
Aaron  were  typical  in  the  old  law — one  of  the 
Divine  Truth  and  the  other  of  the  Divine 
Goodness.  Peter  and  John  are  the  analogous 
masculine  and  feminine  types  in  the  Church 
established  by  Christ.  Representing  also  the 
heavenly  marriage  between  the  True  and  the 
Good,  our  Lord  sent  out  his  disciples  in  cou- 
ples, “by  two  and  two,”  to  preach  the  new 
gospel  of  peace  and  love. 

The  striving  of  sexual  elements  through  af- 
finities or  passional  attractions  after  congenial 
marriage  unions,  is  the  cause  of  all  the  mo- 
tions, growth  and  activities  in  the  physical 
and  moral  worlds.  The  failure  to  attain  the 
desired  end,  and  the  warfare  between  unconge- 
nial and  repulsive  elements,  are  the  causes  of 
all  the  broken  equilibriums,  discords  and  col- 
lisions in  both  spheres.  If  the  atomic  mar- 
riages in  nature  were  perfect,  there  would  be 
no  storms  or  droughts  or  poisons  or  monstrosi- 
ties or  disease.  If  the  marriage  between  the 
individual  will  and  understanding,  between  the 


2,6  The  Sexes;  Here  a?id  Hereafter. 

interior  and  exterior  life,  were  perfect,  we 
should  have  regenerate  men  upon  earth  wor- 
th}'-  to  be  called  the  sons  of  God.  If  the  mar- 
riage between  the  sexes  were  perfect,  we 
should  have  a social  paradise.  If  the  marriage 
between  Church  and  State,  or  between  our 
moral  and  civil  ideas,  werp  perfect,  we  should 
have  a governmental  order  as  sublime  and 
beautiful  as  that  of  the  stars.  If  the  marriage 
between  the  Church  and  the  Lord  were  perfect, 
we  should  have  heaven  open  and  the  angels 
of  God  descending  to  converse  wdth  men. 

We  have  designated  the  universal  power, 
which  draws  and  binds  together  the  positive 
and  negative  elements,  by  the  name  of  Love. 
The  expression  and  product  of  this  love  is  Life, 
whether  it  be  the  gravitative  life  of  atom  co- 
hering to  atom  ; the  mineral  life  of  ox3'gen  and 
hydrogen  embracing  and  dissolving  into  water  ; 
the  vegetable  life  of  the  rose-bush  perfuming 
and  crimsoning  the  air  with  its  presence  ; ani- 
mal life  displaying  itself  in  happy  motions  and 
exquisite  songs ; or  human  life  bound  to  the 
earth  b}^  its  sensuous  affinities  and  penetrating 
into  heaven  vith  its  spiritual  aspirations. 


Love  and  Ala^-riage  Universal.  37 


Philosophers  have  long  suspected  that  all 
the  manifold  forms  of  matter  are  modifications 
of  some  simple  elemental  substance.  They  are 
now  quite  confident  that  all  the  so-called  forces 
of  nature — heat,  light,  electricity,  magnetism, 
mechanical  motion,  etc. — are  not  distinct  as  they 
seem  to  be,  but  mutually  convertible  modifica- 
tions of  one  fundamental  force.  That  one  force 
is  the  Divine  Life,  appearing  as  love  or  heat 
when  it  passes  into  finite,  created  forms.  In 
one  sphere  it  is  the  power  of  gravitation ; in 
another  it  is  chemical  affinity ; in  a third  it  is 
electrical  or  magnetic  attraction ; in  a fourth  it 
is  the  universe  of  human  feeling  and  thought. 
One  in  principle,  protean  in  form,  it  assumes  a 
different  manifestation  for  every  shape  through 
which  it  passes.  It  draws  the  ocean  from  his 
bed ; it  keeps  the  moon  in  her  path ; it  points 
the  needle  to  the  pole ; it  attracts  the  flower  to 
the  sun ; it  directs  the  beast  to  his  prey ; it 
binds  man  to  his  home ; it  leads  the  Christian 
to  his  God. 

A brilliant  French  author  gives  charming 
expression  to  the  idea  that  love  is  the  real 
divinity  that  conceals  herself,  under  various 
D 


38  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter, 

chemical  and  electrical  disguises,  from  the  dull 
eyes  of  the  poor  materialist : 

“Linnaeus  said  : ‘ Minerals  grow,  plants  grow 
and  live,  animals  grow,  live  and  feel’ — as  many 
capital  errors  as  words. 

“ Neither  minerals  nor  flowers  are  devoid 
of  sensibility ; only  the  sensibility  of  those  in- 
ferior beings  is  not  manifested  through  the 
same  organs  as  that  of  man,  for  the  very 
simple  reason  that  plants  and  minerals  are 
less  richly  organized  for  thinking  and  speak- 
ing than  man.  But  the  brain  and  the  larynx 
are  not  indispensable  in  order  to  feel  and  to 
love.  Every  substance  penetrable  by  elec- 
tricity, is  susceptible  of  feeling  and  loving  ; and 
all  bodies  are  penetrable  by  electricity,  which 
plays  in  nature  the  part  of  a universal  agent 
of  attraction,  of  life  and  of  fertility.  Electricity 
operates  on  all  bodies  by  giving  them  a sex ; 
that  is  to  say,  by  doubling  them,  so  as  to  give 
to  each  of  their  separate  parts  a strong  desire 
to  be  rejoined.  To  love  is,  properly  speaking, 
to  be  electrified.  It  is  to  feel  that  one  is  double, 
and  to  feel  the  necessity  of  joining  the  other 
half  of  one’s  being.  Man  and  woman,  who 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal.  39 

are  two  upon  earth,  are  but  one  in  the  other 
life ; wherefore  the  number  of  women  is  equal 
to  that  of  men  in  all  globes.  Electricity 
preaches  by  example ; and  the  untiring  mutual 
pursuit  of  the  two  sexes  is  the  cause  of  all  the 
great  phenomena  of  nature.” 

That  love  is  the  secret  element  or  power  in 
universal  life,  was  wonderfully  allegorized  in 
the  Grecian  mythology — that  rich  treasury  of 
spiritual  wisdom.  There  were  two  gods  known 
as  Love,  and  still  mysteriously  regarded  as 
one  and  the  same.  These  gods  were  the  old- 
est and  youngest  of  the  divine  race,  stand- 
ing at  the  two  extremes, — for  love  is  the  alpha 
and  the  omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
all  things.  The  ancient  or  primeval  Love  was 
without  parents,  or  self-existing,  and  contem- 
porary with  Chaos.  He  was  the  uniting  or 
blending  power  of  the  universe,  the  cause  of 
attraction,  affinity  and  combination.  “ On 
him,”  as  Lord  Bacon  expresses  it,  “ every 
exquisite  sympathy  doth  depend.”  At  the 
other  end  of  the  series  stands  the  beautiful  and 
youthful  Cupid,  the  cheruhic  child  of  Venus, 
because  beauty  gives  birth  to  love,  whose  special 


40 


The  Sexes J Here  and  Hereafter. 


delight  it  is  to  enkindle  the  tender  passion.  Thus 
Love  stands  upon  the  first  and  last  round  of  the 
ladder  of  development,  drawing  atom  to  atom 
in  one  place,  and  heart  to  heart  in  another. 

Both  these  gods,  so  far  separated  in  appear- 
ance but  identical  in  reality,  were  represented 
as  winged  infants,  blind  and  naked,  and  armed 
with  the  bow  and  arrow.  These  symbols  are 
charmingly  significative.  Love  is  represented 
as  a naked  infant  on  account  of  his  tender, 
simple,  beautiful  and  innocent  nature,  being 
the  first  emanation  from  the  Divine  life.  He  is 
blind,  because  it  is  not  his  specialty  to  see,  but 
to  feel — for  sight  belongs  to  the  rational  powers 
or  the  understanding.  He  shoots  with  the 
arrow,  because  he  radiates  his  subtle  power  to 
a distance  like  the  sun ; and  he  has  wings, 
because  it  is  the  aspirations  of  love  only  which 
enable  us  to  soar  from  earthly  to  heavenly 
things. 

We  have  difficulty  in  recognizing  the  fact 
that  sex,  love  and  marriage  are  fundamental 
and  universal,  only  because  we  compare  the 
phenomena  at  the  two  extremes  where  the 
analogies  are  least  apparent ; and  we  see  no 


Sex^  Love  and  Ma7-riage  Universal.  41 

resemblance  whatever  between  the  union  of 
oxygen  and  hydrogen  under  the  electric  spark, 
and  a marriage  ceremony  before  some  gorgeous 
altar,  where  the  loving  pair  exchange  vows  and 
kisses  amidst  the  perfume  of  orange-blossoms, 
and  the  good  priest  blesses  them,  as  Spenser 
sweetly  describes  it,  “ with  his  two  happy 
hands.”  And  yet  these  remote  facts  are  anal- 
ogous links  in  the  same  great  chain  which 
binds  the  least  things  to  the  greatest,  the  cii- 
cumference  to  the  centre  and  all  to  God  ! 

The  starting-point  is  always  the  same.  The 
first  steps  are  always  similar.  The  embryos 
of  all  forms  are  alike.  Yet  the  universal  laws 
which  govern  all  organization  are  as  active  in 
these  simple  things  as  in  the  most  complex. 
By  successive  diflbrentiations  and  evolutions 
the  sexes  become  varied  in  structure  and  func- 
tion. The  simplest  unions  produce  only  third 
substances,  differing  from  both  of  the  constitu- 
ents. Higher  forms  of  marriage  reproduce 
the  species.  A still  loftier  type  transmits  the 
spiritual  qualities  of  father  to  son,  so  that  man 
becomes  “ the  heir  of  all  the  ages.”  At  each 
ascending  series  we  are  delighted  with  new 


43 


'The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

forms,  new  faculties,  new  phenomena ; until 
only  scientific  analysis  can  bring  us  back  to 
the  few  simple  truths — the  alphabet  of  nature — 
which  underlie,  pervade,  and  sustain  the  splen- 
did universe  which  has  been  reared  upon 
them. 

Man  is  organically  but  one  grade  above  the 
brute.  A single  faculty,  a single  phrenological 
organ  at  the  summit  of  the  brain,  separates  him 
from  the  animal  kingdom.  That  is  the  organ 
of  veneration  ; the  idea  of  God ; the  capacity 
to  know,  to  love  and  to  obey  a Supreme  Being. 
That  spiritualizes  his  whole  nature,  moral,  in- 
tellectual and  physical.  Veneration  makes  him 
negative  or  submissive  to  the  Divine  above  him, 
and  sublimely  positive  to  all  below  him.  It 
makes  him  immortal. 

Everything  about  the  man  who  reveres  and 
obeys  God,  becomes  spiritualized.  His  com- 
monest words  and  deeds  are  spiritual  and  are 
I'ecorded  above.  His  daily  life  is  seen  and 
known  and  loved  by  sympathizing  angels  in 
heaven,  as  the  islands  and  ships  of  the  sea  are 
sometimes  reflected  in  the  sky.  His  love  is 
sanctified ; his  marriage  is  spiritual.  Some 


Sex,  Love  and  Mari'iage  Universal.  43 

sweetly  coherent  and  congenial  woman  is  grad- 
ually welded  into  his  very  being ; and  smiling 
at  death,  he  awakes  into  life  to  find  his  bliss 
another  and  yet  the  same,  and  all  his  love  that 
was  genuine  upon  earth  eternally  renewed  in 
heaven. 

We  have  thus  traced  the  sexual  elements, 
yearning  for  maiTiage,  from  their  Divine  Source 
through  spirit  and  matter  into  elemental  and 
mineral  forms,  and  then  upward  through  all 
the  kingdoms  of  nature  to  men  and  spirits, 

“Until  we  find,  as  darkness  rolls 

Far  off,  and  fleshly  mists  dissolve, 

That  nuptial  contrasts  are  the  poles 

On  which  the  heavenly  spheres  revolve.” 

Man  sees  himself  repeated  in  nature  as  in  a 
vast  and  beautiful  mirror.  Nature  indeed  is  an 
infinitesimally  dissected  map  of  man,  reveal- 
ing his  secret  structures,  both  spiritual  and  nat- 
ural. This  is  the  Eesthetic  key  to  the  passion 
which  man  displays  for  investing  inanimate 
things  with  human  feelings  and  faculties.  It 
is  seen  best  in  the  innocent  sports  of  young 
children,  and  in  the  works  of  those  wise  chil- 
dren who  never  grow  old — the  poets.  The 


44  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

poets,  who,  as  a quaint  writer  observes,  “ half 
understand  God,”  indulge  frequently  in  the 
humanization  of  nature,  and  secretly  charm  us 
by  presenting  spiritual  truths  in  poetic  form, 
which  our  feeble  and  torpid  understandings 
would  reject  if  they  were  offered  as  matters  of 
science. 

The  Latin  poet,  Claudian,  has  some  lines 
which  Darwin  might  have  chosen  as  a motto 
for  his  poem,  “ The  Loves  of  the  Plants 

“The  gentle  boughs  together  live  in  love, 

The  happ3’  trees  enamored  intertwine; 

Palm  nods  to  palm ; the  poplars  softly  sigh 
To  poplars;  alders,  poplars,  pines  and  all 
Whisper  their  tender  passions  to  each  other.” 

How  sweetly  our  great  Milton  presents  us 
with  the  same  idea,  when  describing  the  happy 
employments  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  Paradise : 

“ On  to  their  morning  rural  work  the^'  haste. 

Among  sweet  dews  and  flowers ; where  anj^  row 
Of  fruit  trees,  over-woodj',  reached  too  far 
Their  pampered  boughs,  and  needed  hands  to  check 
Fruitless  embraces;  or  they  led  the  vine 
To  wed  her  elm.  She  spoused  about  him  bvines 
Her  marriageable  arms,  and  with  her  brings 
Her  dower,  the  adopted  clusters,  to  adorn 
His  barren  leaves.” 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Utiiversal.  45 

The  philosopher  slowly  arrives  at  his  grand 
induction,  that  man  is  nature  condensed,  and 
nature  is  man  diffused.  The  poet  sees  by  a 
spiritual  light  that  the  life  of  man  and  nature  is 
one.  He  detects  in  all  the  features  of  natural 
scenery  the  spiritual  elements  which  connect 
them  with  the  heart  of  man.  He  perceives 
love  and  gladness  and  fear  and  terror  in  inani- 
mate objects ; wisdom  in  animals ; passion  in 
flowers;  hymns  in  the  cataract;  “sermons  in 
stones  ;”  “ books  in  the  running  brooks  ;”  epics 
in  the  stars ; and  prophecies  in  the  sunset. 

Wordsworth  of  all  the  poets  has  penetrated 
most  deeply  into  the  heart  of  nature,  and  evoked 
her  latent  sympathies  or  analogies  with  man.  It 
was  he  who  turned  from  the  “statelier  passions” 
of  his  race,  to  draw  from  the  “ humbler  urn”  of 
the  flowers  their  “lowlier  pleasures;”  who  for- 
got his  sorrows  in  “ the  jocund  company”  of  the 
daffodils,  and  his  solitude  in  the  presence  of  the 
violet;  who  read  his  own  “unutterable  love”  in 
the  faces  of  the  clouds,  and  felt  the  pulse  of  his 
own  gladness  in  the  throb  of  the  sunlit  ocean ; 
to  whom  the  cuckoo  was  not  a bird,  but  “ an 
invisible  thing,” — “ a voice,  a mystery,  a hope, 


46  The  Sexes',  Het'e  a7id  Hereafter. 

a love and  who  had  so  thoroughly  read  the 
symbolism  of  nature  and  found  the  secrets  of 
his  own  heart  under  it  all,  that  he  could  exclaim 
to  the  little  daisy  : 

“ Sweet,  silent  creature, 

That  breath’st  with  me  in  sun  and  air, 

Do  thou,  as  thou  art  wont,  repair 
My  heart  with  gladness  and  a share 
Of  thy  meek  nature  1” 

Swedenborg  says  that  the  men  of  the  first  or 
antediluvian  church  beheld  nature  as  an  open 
book  or  infinite  mirror,  in  which  the  good  and 
true  things  of  the  Lord’s  kingdom,  descending 
through  their  own  minds,  were  outwardly  re- 
peated and  revealed.  In  the  spiritual  world 
also  the  surrounding  scenery  of  the  angel  or 
spirit  is  not  fixed  or  accidental,  but  is  a shifting 
panorama,  purely  symbolical  of  his  own  mental 
and  moral  states.  The  poets  only  discern,  from 
their  high  mount  of  vision,' the  coming  truths 
which  seem  mystical  to  their  prosaic  fellow- 
men,  but  which  are  really  universal  and  eternal, 
and  the  subject  of  common  and  daily  experience 
to  those  happy  beings  who  have  escaped  our 
painful  limitations  of  time  and  space,  and  have 
risen  into  the  Land  of  Light. 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Universal,  47 

Whatever  exists  in  man  is  repeated  in  nature  ; 
whatever  exists  in  nature  may  be  discovered 
under  some  correspondential  form  in  man. 
Sex,  love,  and  marriage  pervade  both.  The 
principle  of  binary  combination,  caused  by  the 
attraction  of  two  complementary  forms  or  forces, 
underlies  every  object,  every  fact,  every  move- 
ment in  the  world.  Sex  is  the  universal  form  ; 
love  the  universal  force  ; marriage  the  universal 
result.  If  man  be  immortal,  why  are  not  his 
sex,  his  love,  his  marriage  eternal? 


CHAPTER  II. 

SEX,  LOVE  AND  A/A  EE/ACE  ETEENAE 

O him  who  has  discovered  the  organic 
bond  of  connection  between  the  visible 
and  invisible  worlds ; who  can  real- 
ize the  divine  solidarity  or  mutual  coherence 
of  all  things ; who  knows  that  the  future  life, 
springing  from  the  same  causes  and  assuming 
similar  forms,  is  a beautiful,  ethereal,  and  per- 
fected continuation  of  this  ; to  him  theology, 
retaining  its  sublimity,  has  lost  its  gloom,  and 
death,  without  ceasing  to  be  solemn,  is  divested 
of  its  terror.  To  him  our  last  great  change, 
by  which  we  simply  disappear  from  our  earthly 
friends,  is  not 

“ So  much  as  even  the  lifting  of  a latch; 

Only  a step  into  the  open  air 

Out  of  a tent  already  luminous 

With  light  that  shines  through  its  transparent  walls.” 

48 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  EterJial.  49 

When  we  die,  or  rather  when  we  seem  to  die, 
we  sleep  ; and  our  sleep  is  of  little  longer  dura- 
tion than  that  which  we  here  experience  be- 
tween one  day  and  another.  “ This  day  shalt 
thou  be  with  me  in  paradise,”  said  the  Saviour 
to  the  penitent  thief;  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  conversation  which  was  interrupted  by 
the  sufferings  and  death  of  the  cross,  was  soon 
resumed  between  Christ  and  the  new  Chris- 
tian in  their  spiritual  bodies  in  the  spiritual 
world. 

For  we  awake  from  the  quiet  little  sleep  of 
death,  and  find  ourselves  in  a spiritual  body. 

“ There  is  a natural  body  and  there  is  a spir- 
itual body,”  says  Paul : which  are  conjoined 
during  life  and  separated  at  death,  adds  Swe- 
denborg. The  soul  outside  of  a spiritual  body 
has  no  existence  ; for  spirit  which  has  no  form 
has  not  yet  come  into  being.  Man  knows  him- 
self as  “ a natural  body”  whilst  in  this  world, 
and  as  “a  spiritual  body”  in  the  next.  The 
word  “sown,”  used  by  Paul,  refers  not,  as  some 
readers  suppose,  to  the  interment  of  one’s  corpse 
in  the  grave,  but  to  the  birth  of  our  living  nat- 
ural body  into  the  world.  “The  time,”  says 
4 E 


50  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

John  Locke,  “that  man  is  in  this  world,  affixed 
to  this  earth,  is  his  being  ‘ sown,’  and  not  when 
being  dead,  he  is  put  into  the  grave,  as  is  evi- 
dent from  Paul’s  own  words ; for  dead  things 
are  not  sown.  Seeds  are  sown,  being  alive, 
and  die  not  until  after  they  are  sown.” 

“ The  grave  has  nothing  it  can  render  back  : 

We  do  not  pass  from  nature  to  the  grave ; ’ 

But  Nature  is  our  grave,  from  which  we  rise, 

At  seeming  death,  our  real  resurrection. 

Into  the  Land  of  Beauty.” 

The  natural  body  is  subject  to  disorder,  acci- 
dent, dishonor,  and  corruption,  as  Paul  affirms. 
The  spiritual  body  is  ethereal,  beautiful,  incor- 
ruptible, immortal.  But  it  is  not  the  less  a 
body,  compounded  of  organs  and  tissues,  and 
possessed  of  sensibilities  and  functions  corre- 
sponding to  those  of  the  natural  body.  It  is 
also  male  or  female. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  soul  in  any 
other  shape  than  that  of  the  body ; and  equally 
impossible  to  conceive  of  any  other  shape  which 
can  give  expression  to  the  thoughts,  feelings, 
and  capacities  of  the  soul.  The  common  percep- 
tion of  mankind,  undarkened  by  metaph3^sical 


Sex,  Love  arid  Marriage  Eternal.  51 

speculations,  teaches  that  our  departed  friends 
are  not  resolved  into  spiritual  ethers  or  gases 
or  vapors,  but  that  they  exist  in  veritable 
human  form.  Spirits  and  angels  always  ap- 
peared to  the  ancient  worthies  in  bodies  undis- 
tinguishable  from  those  of  men.  Virgil  calls 
the  souls  of  the  dead  whom  Charon  was  ferry- 
ing over  the  river  Styx,  “ corpora,”  or  bodies. 
It  is  only  the  transcendental  theologian  who, 
by  his  subtle  abstractions,  would  lead  us  to  the 
absurd  conclusion  of  Anaximenes,  that  the  soul 
is  a disembodied  essence. 

The  fathers  of  the  Christian  Church,  very 
near  to  the  teachings  and  the  traditions  of 
the  apostles  and  of  Paul,  very  generally  re- 
garded the  human  soul  as  identical  with  the 
“spiritual  body.”  Cudworth  says:  “ Tertul- 
lian  makes  the  soul  itself  to  be  corporeal,  fig- 
urate  and  colorate,  and  after  death  to  have  the 
very  same  shape  which  its  respective  body  had 
before  in  this  life.” 

Lord  Bacon,  the  founder  of  the  inductive 
philosophy,  echoes  this  early  and  rational  opin- 
ion of  the  Church.  “ This  spirit  whereof  wc 
speak,”  says  he,  “is  not  from  virtue  or  energy 


52 


The  Sexes;  Here  a7id  Hereafter. 


or  act  or  a trifle,  but  plainly  a body,  rare  and 
invisible,  notwithstanding  circumscribed  by 
space,  quantitative,  real.” 

How  exquisitely  the  poet  confirms  in  song 
the  graver  teachings  of  the  sage  ! — 

“ Sudden  arose 
lanthe’s  soul.  It  stood 
All  beautiful  in  naked  purity, 

The  perfect  semblance  of  its  bodily  frame. 

Each  stain  of  earthliness 
Had  passed  away;  it  reassumed 
Its  native  dignity  and  stood 
Immortal  amid  ruin  !” 


Such  is  the  resurrection  which  awaits  us  all, 
even  before  the  hair  has  ceased  to  grow  upon 
the  dead  body  our  friends  have  buried.  The 
soul  rises  in  a spiritual  body,  and  that  bod}"  is 
male  or  female.  Augustine  gravely  discusses 
the  question  whether  women  are  admitted  into 
heaven  in  their  own  bodies,  or  in  the  bodies  of 
men,  or  under  some  other  form ; and  he  comes 
to  the  rational  conclusion  that  the  female  soul 
must  inhabit  a female  body. 

A woman  who  closes  her  eyes  in  this  world 
and  opens  them  in  another,  has  lost  nothing  of 


Sex,  Love  atid  ]\Iai'i'iage  Eternal.  53 

her  feminine  form  and  character.  She  is  not  a 
man,  nor  an  hermaphrodite,  nor  a nondescript, 
nor  a spiritual  vapor  floating  in  the  mystic  ether 
of  universal  thought.  She  is  a living,  breath- 
ing, sensitive  woman ; and  if  regenerate,  she 
has  every  womanly  feature  beautified  and  ever}'’ 
womanly  quality  intensified  for  a higher  and 
better  life.  The  “ sex  of  the  soul,”  as  Cole- 
ridge calls  it,  impresses  itself  inefiaceably  both 
here  and  hereafter  upon  the  bodily  structure. 
Woman  is  woman  still.  Every  muscle  there  as 
here  is  a female  muscle  ; every  bone  is  a female 
bone.  From  her  delicate  and  sfirituelle  fea- 
tures beam  forth  the  softness  and  beauty  of  the 
feminine  soul,  and  on  the  elliptic  curves  of  her 
graceful  form  accumulates,  as  in  this  world,  the 
charming  magnetism  of  life.  A man  also  finds 
himself  organically  a man. 

The  spiritual  body  is  far  purer  in  substance 
than  the  natural  body ; it  is  like  diamond  to 
stone-coal.  It  has  none  of  those  excretory 
functions  which  are  here  necessary  to  rid  us 
of  the  poisons  we  daily  absorb.  Plastic  to  the 
influent  forces  of  the  spiritual  life,  it  is  a perfect 
picture  and  revelation  of  the  soul.  It  changes 


54  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

with  our  states  of  love  and  wisdom.  The  good 
alone  are  beautiful.  The  false  and  evil  have 
their  interior  ugliness  transcribed  in  baleful 
characters  on  their  outward  forms,  while  the 
pure  and  the  loving  become  more  and  more 
perfect  and  beautiful  for  ever.  In  heaven 
beauty  is  really  what  the  ancients  called  it — 
the  outflowering  of  virtue. 

When  men  and  women,  newly  ascended  into 
the  spiritual  w'orld,  begin  to  move  about  and  to 
realize  the  change  which  has  taken  place — 
to  think,  examine  and  be  instructed — they  dis- 
cover not  only  that  they  have  similar  3'et  incor- 
I'uptible  bodies,  but  also  that  they  have  the 
same  mental  and  moral  peculiarities  which  they 
exhibited  in  this  life.  They  have  the  same 
sympathies  and  antipathies,  the  same  faith  and 
opinions,  the  same  appetites  and  passions,  which 
the}"  had  here.  They  have  left  nothing  behind 
them  but  the  material  bod}"  and  the  natural 
limitations  of  time  and  space.  No  miraculous 
transformation  has  occurred  by  the  act  of  death. 
They  find  that  the  spiritual  life  is  simply  a 
continuation  of  this  life  on  higher  ground,  the 
evil  being  totally  and  for  ever  separated  from 


Sex,  Love  and  JMarriage  Eternal.  55 

the  good,  and  with  more  potent  and  heavenly 
influences  and  more  beautiful  and  plastic  forms, 
because  nearer  to  the  vital  source  of  all  being. 

Spiritual  objects  make  impressions  upon 
their  spiritual  bodies  precisely  similar  to  those 
which  natural  objects  luake  upon  our  natural 
bodies.  Consequently  the  life  there,  although 
intensely  spiritual  and  intellectual,  is  very  simi- 
lar to  ours.  They  have  an  earth  as  solid  to 
them  as  ours  is  to  us.  They  have  a sun  and  a 
sky  and  gorgeous  clouds  that,  like  ours,  are 
“ shepherded  by  the  gentle  wind.”  They 
have  towns  and  cities  and  temples  and  palaces. 
They  walk  in  gardens  and  meadows  and 
groves.  They  have  the  voices  of  morning 
and  evening,  the  glory  but  not  the  gloom  of 
mountains,  and  the  green  pastures  and  still 
waters  of  enchanted  vales. 

In  that  world,  as  real  and  substantial  as  this, 
love,  by  whatever  name  we  call  it,  whatever 
form  it  assumes — afBnity,  attraction,  sympathy, 
passion,  aspiration,  or  adoration — love  is  the 
supreme  power,  and  determines  the  life  of  the 
heavenly  society  and  the  form  of  its  govern- 
ment. It  draws  kindred  spirits  together  in  the 


56  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

bonds  of  a thousand  shining  uses.  The  over- 
ruling love  of  the  Lord  and  the  neighbor  blends 
the  affections  and  thoughts  of  all  souls  into 
eternal  harmony,  and  builds  up  a heaven  within 
and  without.  The  centre  and  throne  of  love’s 
sweetest,  highest  power  in  that  life,  as  in  this, 
is  the  Home.  Husband-and-wife,  the  double- 
star of  the  spiritual  skies,  is  the  unitary  form 
of  heaven.  Eden  was  a type  of  the  celestial 
country.  Every  home  there  is  a little  paradise 
in  which  some  happy  Adam  and  Eve,  partaking 
of  the  tree  of  life  and  communing  sweetly  with 
God,  enjoy  each  other’s  love  for  ever. 

Verily,  sex,  love  and  marriage  are  eternal. 

This  is  the  necessary  and  legitimate  conclu- 
sion to  be  drawn  from  the  following  great  and 
eternal  truths  : the  unity  and  omnipresence  of 
God ; the  connection  and  concordance  of  the 
natural  and  spiritual  words  ; and  the  immortal- 
ity of  the  human  soul. 

If  there  be  one  Creator,  indivisible  and  om- 
nipresent, who  operates  everywhere  and  eter- 
nall}^  by  the  same  immutable  laws,  He  must 
have  created  the  spiritual  and  the  natural  worlds 
by  the  same  forces  and  on  the  same  plan,  so 


Sex^  Love  and  Marriage  Eternal.  57 

that  in  some  manner  they  may  correspond  to 
each  other,  and  be  held  together  by  his  ani- 
mating and  cementing  breath.  If  sex,  love 
and  marriage  express  forms  forces  and  princi- 
ples not  originating  or  inherent  in  dead  matter, 
but  imparted  to  it  by  spiritual  influences  flowing 
from  God  through  the  spiritual  world,  and  con- 
necting both  spirit  and  matter  with  himself,  and 
if  man  is  immortal  and  retains  his  identity  in  a 
higher  world  through  which  the  spiritual  forces 
that  organized  and  animated  him  while  here 
had  already  passed — the  conclusion  is  irre- 
sistible that  he  will  be  there  just  what  he  was 
here,  minus  the  material  body ; that  he  will  be 
male  or  female  ; that  he  will  love  and  be  loved  ; 
and  that  he  will  be  or  may  be  eternally  con- 
joined to  the  object  of  his  love. 

Man  and  woman  are  so  thoroughly  and  or- 
ganically male  and  female,  that  they  cannot  be 
unsexed  in  the  other  life  without  such  a radical 
change  in  their  nature  and  qualities  that  they 
would  lose  their  spiritual  identity,  and  could  not, 
therefore,  be  said  to  be  immortal.  And  if  not 
unsexed,  then  must  attraction,  afflnity,  sympa- 
thy, passion,  and  all  the  forms  of  love,  unless 


58  The  Sexes ; Here  mid  Hereafter. 

so  changed  or  reconstructed  as  to  be  no  longer 
love,  manifest  the  same  properties  and  produce 
the  same  effects  that  they  do  in  this  world. 

The  sexuality  of  man  and  woman  consists 
really  in  the  sexual  differences  between  their 
souls,  which  are  thence  anatomically  repre- 
sented in  their  bodies.  It  is  said  in  the  Scrip- 
ture that  God  created  man  male  and  female,  in 
his  own  image  and  likeness.  Surely  the  image 
and  likeness  of  God  is  not  in  the  physical  bodies 
of  men  and  women  ! That  image  and  likeness 
must  be  found,  if  anywhere,  in  some  male  and 
female  principles  of  the  soul  itself.  Sex  there- 
fore is  spiritual.  If-  spiritual,  it  is  eternal. 
Love  is  the  attraction,  the  very  life  of  the 
sexes ; marriage  is  their  union,  their  eternal 
life,  their  heaven. 

This  spiritual  philosophy  of  sex,  so  clear, 
so  beautiful,  so  consonant  with  intuition  and 
reason,  and  having  such  a sound  scientific 
basis,  is  quite  a new  thing  to  the  psychologies 
and  theologies  of  the  present  day.  The  posi- 
tion of  the  two  great  ecclesiastical  powers  on 
the  subject,  has  been  eloquently  defined  by  a 
writer  of  great  experience  in  spiritual  matters. 


Sex,  Love  a7td  Mai'riage  Eteivtal.  59 

“ It  is  obvious  that  neither  Rome  nor  Protest- 
antism inculcate  this  faith  [marriage  in  the  spir- 
itual world] ; nor  do  they  leave  it  as  an  august 
problem  to  be  solved  within  the  portals  of  a 
better  life.  Rome  is  essentially  monastic  in  its 
theory.  Marriage  is  a permitted  impurity,  or 
at  least  in  holiness  far  below  celibacy.  Rome 
never  twined  a wreath  of  celestial  flowers  for 
Hymen’s  brow ; never  chanted  a heavenly  epi- 
thalamium ; never  overshadowed  the  nuptial 
couch  with  reverent  wings ; never  diflused  a 
sanctifying  power  to  exorcise  the  genii  who 
invade  and  desecrate  its  mysteries.  It  leaves 
the  sweetest  of  all  human  affections  in  the 
grave  where  the  body  perishes,  and  inscribes 
the  sentence  of  everlasting  oblivion  upon  the 
mute  remains.” 

“But  if  Rome  is  monastic,  Protestantism  is 
corporeal.  From  a celestial  point  of  view  its 
ideas  resemble,  not  winged  cherubs,  not  hymn- 
ing seraphs,  but  beasts  and  creeping  things. 
It  mai'ries  for  time ; it  divorces  for  eternity. 
As  a worldly  convenience,  a temporal  moral- 
ity, a present  divine  ordinance,  it  recognizes  a 
mere  form  of  union,  and  does  well  when  it 


6o  The  Sexes',  Here  and  Hereafter. 

insists  upon  its  maintenance,  denouncing  the 
violations  of  its  ordinances  with  extreme  spir- 
itual penalties.  But  while  it  consecrates  and 
ratifies  the  external  bond,  it  betrays  too  often 
the  impurity  of  its  internal  thought  by  denoun- 
cing as  carnal  the  doctrine  that  finds  in  heaven 
a union  of  two  kindred  chastities  into  one  beati- 
tude. The  rejection  of  this  faith  from  its  pul- 
pits, the  denial  of  it  there,  fatally  disproves  its 
claim  to  be  considered  as  the  Church  of  God  in 
any  absolute  or  final  sense.” 

It  is  necessary  to  consider  the  causes  of  the 
exclusion  of  the  ideas  of  sex  and  marriage  from 
the  conception  which  the  Apostolic  Church  en- 
tertains of  the  life  after  death.  If  it  can  be 
shown  to  candid  minds  that  the  reasons  adduced 
for  such  an  exclusion  are  wholly  inconclusive, 
it  will  go  far  toward  uprooting  prejudices  and 
misconceptions  which  keep  out  the  light  of 
spiritual  truth.  The  doctrines  of  Swedenborg 
on  this  subject,  when  rightly  understood,  are 
found  to  be  rich  in  heavenly  truth  and  beauty. 

The  first  reason,  and  a most  powerful  one, 
against  sex  and  marriage  in  heaven,  is,  that 
our  Lord  appears  to  have  settled  the  question 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Eternal.  6i 

by  explicitly  declaring  that  in  heaven  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage.  This 
has  precluded  all  investigation,  all  discussion 
of  the  subject.  It  has  been  taken  for  granted 
that  sexual  distinctions  are  dropped  at  death, 
and  that  we  are  something  entirely  different  in 
the  other  world  from  what  we  are  here.  A 
separate  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  this  import- 
ant question,  and  it  will  be  clearly  shown  that 
a misinterpretation  of  our  Lord’s  meaning, 
necessary  and  inevitable  at  that  age,  has  fixed 
a doctrinal  error  upon  the  Church,  from  which 
it  is  about  to  be  delivered  by  a further  unfolding 
of  the  Divine  Word,  and  by  the  progressive 
development  and  receptivity  of  the  human 
mind. 

The  second  reason  why  the  idea  of  sex  and 
marriage  in  heaven  is  repulsive  to  the  orthodox 
mind,  is  that  the  Church  has  never  understood 
the  full  significance  of  marriage  as  a divine 
institution  and  means  of  regeneration  ; and  that 
the  perversions  of  the  sexual  relation  have  been 
so  terrible,  that  the  common  conception  of  mar- 
riage is  altogether  external,  sensuous,  and 
unspiritual. 


p 


62  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

The  world  is  full  of  evil,  the  powers  of  hell 
are  near  to  us,  and  our  general  range  of  thought 
is  low  and  sensual,  on  account  of  our  corrupt 
affections  and  our  darkened  understandings. 
It  is  almost  impossible  for  us  to  approach 
the  pure  and  holy  subjects  of  sex  and  marriage 
in  the  proper  spirit.  Heaven  is  so  closed  to 
us,  we  live  so  thoroughly  in  and  for  the  senses, 
and  our  civilization  is  so  cankered  with  natural- 
ism, that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  see  anything 
in  the  union  of  the  sexes  but  a temporary 
alliance  for  the  reproduction  of  the  species. 
Its  whole  world  of  spiritual  uses  is  closed  to 
us  or  concealed  from  us.  We  suspect  there  is 
something  unchaste  about  marriage  itself ; and 
our  ideal  of  personal  holiness  and  angelic 
purity  supposes  something  which  is  developed 
apart  from  and  superior  to  the  sexual  relation. 
This  idea  of  impurity  connected  with  marriage, 
is  simply  an  index  of  our  own  impurity. 

These  false  views  of  the  subject  have  given 
rise  to  many  absurd  and  fanatical  asceticisms, 
including  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  clergy 
in  one  Church,  and  in  all  of  them  erroneous 
conceptions  of  chastity  and  of  the  uses  of  mar- 


Sex^  Love  and  Alarriage  Eterttal.  63 
riacre.  To  such  an  insane  decree  has  this 

o o 

phantasy  been  carried,  that  at  one  time  the 
Church  regarded  woman  herself  as  essentially 
impure,  and  she  was  forbidden  to  come  to  the 
hol}^  communion.  Theological  delirium  could 
not  have  engendered  a more  direful  falsity. 
Akin  to  it  is  the  delusive  idea,  that  those  who 
separate  themselves  from  the  world  and  devote 
their  lives  to  holy  contemplation  and  prayer, 
are  especially  chaste,  especially  spiritual,  espe- 
cially accepted  of  heaven. 

Monks  and  nuns  are  thought  to  be  married 
to  Christ  in  a peculiar  manner.  What  a 
mockery  ! What  a terrible  misconception  of 
the  heavenly  marriage  ! Every  Christian  must 
be  manned  to  Christ,  or  he  will  never  be 
admitted  to  the  supper  of  the  Great  King. 
Men  and  women  are  best  married  to  Christ 
by  being  thoroughly,  devotedly,  spiritually 
married  to  each  other.  They  are  married  to 
Christ  by  the  faithful  performance  of  house- 
hold duties,  by  the  care  of  children,  by  the 
love  of  friends  and  neighbors  and  ’country,  by 
religion  in  little  and  familiar  things,  by  sub- 
ordinating the  appetites  to  the  moral  send- 


64  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

ments,  by  honest  and  useful  labors,  by  mutual 
trials  and  temptations  and  sufferings,  by  fight- 
ing in  the  world  and  with  the  world  until  they 
have  subdued  themselves  and  the  world. 

As  men  can  quote  the  literal  sense  of  Scrip- 
ture to  confirm  any  absurd  or  monstrous  doc- 
trine whatsoever,  they  have  not  failed  to  de- 
nounce the  intercourse  of  the  sexes  even  in 
wedlock  as  debasing  and  unchristian  on  the 
strength  of  the  remarkable  passage  in  Revela- 
tion xiv.  4:  “These  are  they  which  were  not 
defiled  with  women ; for  they  are  virgins. 
These  are  they  which  follow  the  Lamb  whith- 
ersoever he  goeth.” 

To  sustain  a preconceived  opinion,  they  have 
enforced  a literal  interpretation  of  this  passage, 
occurring  in  a book  whose  every  sentence 
is  plainly  allegorical  and  sj-mbolical.  Their 
exposition  requires  that  the  mj-stical  number 
of  saints,  “ a hundred  and  forty  and  four 
thousand,” — representing  the  whole  multitude 
of  the  redeemed  from  the  earth,  who  were 
not  “ defiled  with  women,” — should  have  been 
of  the  male  sex.  No  women  at  all  in  heaven  ! 
An  obvious  absurdity  ! “ Women”  in  the  con- 


Sex^  Love  and  Marj'iage  Eternal.  65 

text  evidently  means  the  natural  affections  and 
passions  of  the  soul;  and  to  be  “not  defiled 
with  women,”  is  to  have  kept  the  heart  pure 
from  earthly  passions  and  uncontaminated  by 
evil  loves,  and  therefore  “virgin”  for  the 
Lamb,  who  is  the  Bridegroom  of  the  Church. 
The  passage  describes  the  regenerate  soul,  and 
is  just  as  applicable  in  its  spiritual  sense  to  the 
female  as  to  the  male  member  of  Christ’s 
church. 

To  deliver  us  from  the  bondage  of  material- 
ism and  sensualism,  a special  and  extraordi- 
nary illumination  of  the  human  mind  has  been 
granted  by  the  Lord.  When  we  understand 
the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures,  which 
shines  through  or  dissipates  the  obscurities  or 
“clouds”  of  the  letter;  when  we  see  the  true 
relations  between  spirit  and  matter,  now  for  the 
first  time  clearly  revealed ; when  we  are  made 
acquainted  with  the  laws  and  phenomena  of 
the  other  life,  we  shall  discover  that  marriage 
is  the  central  and  pivotal  fact  of  the  universe  ; 
that  the  reproduction  of  the  species  in  this 
world  is  the  lowest  and  humblest  of  its  many 

uses  ; that  the  union  of  the  sexes  appointed  by 
5 r * 


66 


The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereayter. 

God  in  the  first  paradise,  is  the  t3"pe  and  image 
of  their  eternal  union  in  the  last;  that  wedlock 
under  the  divine  law,  is  chastity  itself ; and  that 
the  happy  marriage  of  two  loving  souls,  is  so 
pure,  so  holy,  so  immutable,  that  it  is  the 
chosen  type  in  the  Divine  Word  of  regen- 
eration and  of  heaven. 

A third  potent  reason  why  the  world  and  the 
Church  are  not  prepared  for  the  grand  idea  of 
eternal  sex  and  marriage  is,  that  they  know 
absolutety  nothing  about  the  spiritual  life, 
and  see  no  philosophical  bond  of  connection 
between  the  visible  and  the  invisible  worlds. 
Religion  and  science  are  so  thoroughly  di- 
vorced in  the  common  mind,  that  men  see  no 
special  reason  for  any  influx  from  heaven  into 
earth.  They  think  matter  has  certain  proper- 
ties inherent  in  itself,  and  that  material  forces 
and  forms  have  built  up  this  physical  world 
around  us,  which  can  run  its  own  course  like  a 
machine,  separate  from  and  unconnected  with 
any  spiritual  universe.  This  latter  may  be, 
for  aught  they  know,  a veiy  different  crea- 
tion, lying  afar  off  from  this,  with  totally  dif- 
ferent forms,  laws  and  phenomena,  having  no 


Sex,  Love  mid  Alarriage  Eternal.  67 

necessary  and  organic  connection  with  this 
world. 

These  are  monstrous  fallacies  blinding  the 
mind  to  any  conception  of  spiritual  truth.  The 
first  melancholy  result  is  a vicious  method  of 
reasoning  about  spiritual  things.  Spirit  is  sup- 
posed to  be  so  different  from  matter,  so  far 
from  it,  so  unconnected  with  it,  that  they  can- 
not possibly  have  anything  in  common.  Mat- 
ter has  extension,  weight,  form,  color,  odor, 
organization,  etc.  Therefore  no  such  proper- 
ties can  be  ascribed  to  spirit.  Spirit  thus  be- 
comes, not  something  real  and  substantial,  but 
a mere  negation  of  matter ; and  as  all  our 
thoughts  in  time  and  space  are  based  upon  our 
sensuous  conceptions,  the  spiritual  world  be- 
comes, to  the  popular  mind,  simply  vacated  of 
everything  except  certain  incomprehensible 
abstract  essences. 

What  follows?  Incapacity  to  conceive  of 
any  real  life  after  death.  Practical  infidelity 
as  to  the  existence  of  a spiritual  world.  Total 
indifference,  and  even  intolerance,  about  spirit- 
ual things.  It  is  a melancholy  fact  that  intelli- 
gent curiosity  in  respect  to  the  life  after  death, 


68  The  Sexes;  Het’e  and  Hereof ier. 

is  almost  dead  in  orthodox  circles.  Christians 
think  and  know  nothing  about  it  outside  of  the 
mere  question  of  personal  salvation.  They  are 
not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  their  inability  and 
indisposition  to  form  any  definite  idea  of  the 
world  they  are  to  live  in  forever.  Their  eyes 
are  shut  against  rational  light,  or  further  revela- 
tion. They  will  assent  to  infinitudes  of  love, 
peace,  praise,  glory,  blessedness,  etc.,  in  the 
heavenly  kingdom  ; but  they  turn  a deaf  ear 
when  you  speak  of  societies  and  governments 
and  aids  and  sciences  and  churches  and  homes 
and  husbands  and  wives  in  the  world  to  come. 

What  has  reduced  the  Christian  mind  to  such 
a vacant  and  apathetic  state?  “ Do  you  think 
we  will  know  our  friends  in  the  other  life.''”  is 
generally  the  first  question  to  a New  Church- 
man. The  apostles,  who  knew  Moses  and  Elias 
when  talking  with  the  transfigured  Jesus,  had 
• no  doubt  about  knowing  their  fidends  in  the 
other  life.  The  early  Christians,  who  saw 
devils  cast  out  of  the  bodies  of  men,  and  who 
met  angels  at  the  tomb  of  the  Lord,  had  no 
doubt  about  the  reality  and  proximity  of  the 
spiritual  world.  Has  it  changed  its  nature  or 


Sex,  Love  and  ]\Iarriage  Etei'nal.  69 

its  relation  to  this  world  since  that  time?  John, 
who  received  the  Apocalypse  through  one  of  his 
brethren,  the  prophets,  had  no  doubt  about  the 
immediate  resurrection  of  the  dead,  or  the  open- 
ing of  the  spiritual  eyes  of  a man  still  living  in 
the  world.  How  the  good  men  from  Abraham 
to  Paul,  who  saw  into  heaven  before  death,  and 
recognized  there  mountains  and  rivers  and  ani- 
mals and  trees  and  tabernacles  and  temples 
and  sounds  and  colors  and  crowds  of  spiritual 
beings  in  human  form,  would  be  filled  w4th 
astonishment  at  the  transcendental  theology  of 
the  present  day,  which  practically  makes  the 
soul  an  ether,  heaven  a vacuum,  and  God,  as 
one  great  commentator  actually  defines  him, 
“ a luminous  abyss  !” 

Here  it  is  that  Swedenborg’s  rational  and 
philosophical  doctrines,  illustrating  his  spiritual 
theology,  render  such  transcendent  service. 
The  spiritual  and  natural  worlds  are  co-exist- 
ent, correspondent,  and  mutually  dependent. 
The  forces  employed  in  their  creation  and 
maintenance  are  identical — namely,  the  Divine 
Love  and  the  Divine  Wisdom  operating  by  the 
same  universal  and  immutable  laws.  There- 


70 


The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 


fore  the  spiritual  and  natural  worlds  are  not 
only  connected  but  inseparable ; and  they  are 
counterparts  of  each  other,  each  having  ii^s 
sun,  its  earths,  its  innumerable  forms, — animal, 
vegetable,  and  mineral, — and  its  human  beings 
— for  angels  are  only  men  transfigured. 

All  genuine  life,  force,  power,  quality,  sen- 
sation, etc.,  reside  in  the  spiritual  and  not  in 
the  natural  sphere,  although  the  contrary  ap- 
pears to  us  to  be  true.  What  is  the  conse- 
quence? The  qualities  or  properties  of  matter 
are  not  inherent  but  infiiient.  Never  was  a 
grander  truth  than  this,  differentiating  the  Swe- 
denborgian  philosophy  from  all  the  feebler 
systems  which  have  preceded  it  and  pre- 
pared the  wa}^  for  it.  The  ideas  of  extension, 
weight,  color,  form,  odor,  etc.,  made  on  us  here, 
are  states  of  our  spiritual  organization  which 
exist  and  are  infinitely  varied  in  the  spiritual 
world  without  the  intervention  of  natural  ob- 
jects. Therefore  that  world  is  as  real  and 
solid  as  this — the  reality,  indeed,  of  which  ours 
is  the  shadow. 

This  is  the  basis  of  Swedenborg's  doctrine 
of  correspondences,  which  explains  the  spirit- 


Sex,  Love  and  ALarriage  Eternal. 

ual  sense  of  the  Bible  and  the  spiritual  signifi- 
cance of  nature.  Every  natural  form  is  pro- 
duced by  and  represents  some  spiritual  form. 
A pleasant  emotion  is  awakened  in  the  soul ; a 
smile  follows  in  the  body,  as  its  representative, 
or  material  correspondent.  The  smile  has  a 
spiritual  cause  and  meaning.  So  has  a stone, 
a flower,  a bird,  a cloud,  the  sun — yea,  every 
visible  object  in  nature — its  spiritual  meaning. 
Were  our  understandings  sufiiciently  enlight- 
ened and  our  spiritual  perceptions  sufficiently 
quickened,  we  would  catch  the  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  all  things,  and  the  natural  world  would 
be  to  us  an  open  book  or  mirror  repeating  and 
revealing  the  wonders  of  the  spiritual.  Under 
the  old  philosophies  nature  will  be  alwa3''s 
“the  open  secret”  of  Goethe;  exposed  every- 
where, explained  nowhere;  seen  of  all  men, 
understood  by  none. 

To  those  who  grasp  this  necessary  connec- 
tion between  the  spiritual  and  the  natural 
worlds,  together  with  the  priority,  superiority, 
and  causativeness  of  the  spiritual,  the  distinc- 
tions of  sex  after  death,  the  activity  of  all 
human  passions,  and  the  perpetuity  of  mar- 


^3  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

riage,  are  not  only  rational  and  proper,  but 
absolutely  inevitable.  To  deny  them  is  to  deny 
the  unity  and  omnipresence  of  a God  working 
by  immutable  and  universal  laws,  the  relation 
of  cause  and  effect,  the  mutual  coherence  of 
all  things  spiritual  and  natural  with  one  great 
Centre,  and  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul. 

The  gi*eat  Puritan  poet  expresses,  in  a cau- 
tious question,  what  is  the  intuitive  perception 
of  every  mind  unbenighted  b}’'  the  ratiocina- 
tions of  some  so-called  philosophy  : 

“ What  if  earth 

Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 

Each  to  the  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought?” 

Mrs.  Browning,  the  queen  of  modern  song, 
recognizes  the  vital  relations  between  the  spir- 
itual and  the  natural  worlds  in  a more  vivid 
and  beautiful  manner : 

“Not  a natural  flower  can  grow  on  earth 
Without  a flower  upon  the  spiritual  side. 
Substantial,  archetypal,  all  aglow 
With  blossoming  causes.” 

And  as  if  the  veil  which  conceals  the  spirit- 
ual secrets  of  nature  from  obtuser  mortals  had 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Eternal.  73 

fallen  from  her  eyes,  she  exclaims  in  sublime 
rhapsody, 

“ Earth’s  crammed  with  heaven, 

And  every  common  bush  afire  with  God !” 

“The  characters  of  nature,”  says  an  emi- 
nent English  divine,  “ are  the  hieroglyphics 
of  God.”  To  these  hieroglyphics,  Sweden- 
borg, illumined  from  on  high,  has  given  us  the 
key ; and  it  will  be  our  own  fault  if  the  created 
and  written  Words  do  not  enlighten  our  minds 
and  gladden  our  hearts  with  stores  of  heavenly 
wisdom  hitherto  concealed  from  the  world. 
The  richest  among  these  treasures  is  the  spirit- 
ual philosophy  of  marriage  on  earth  and  in 
heaven. 

Archbishop  Trench,  in  his  work  on  the 
Parables,  discussing  the  grounds  of  analogy 
between  the  spiritual  and  natural  worlds,  gives 
unconscious  utterance  to  the  Swedenborgian 
doctrine  with  great  force  and  beauty  : 

“It  is  not  merely  that  these  analogies  [equiv- 
alent to  Swedenborg’s  doctrine  of  correspond- 
ences] assist  to  make  the  truth  intelligible,  or, 
if  intelligible  before,  present  it  more  vividly  to 

the  mind,  which  is  all  that  some  will  allow 
G 


74  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

them.  Their  -power  lies  deeper  than  this,  in 
the  harmony,  tcnconsciously  felt  by  all  meii, 
and  by  deeper  minds  continually  recognized 
and  perceived,  between  the  naticral  and  spirit- 
ual worlds ; so  that  analogies  from  the  first  are 
felt  to  be  something  more  than  illustrations 
happily  but  arbitrarily  chosen.  They  are  ar- 
guments, and  may  be  alleged  as  witnesses : 
the  world  of  nature  being  throughout  a wit- 
ness for  the  world  of  spirit,  proceeding  from 
the  same  hand,  growing  out  of  the  same  root, 
and  being  constituted  for  that  very  end.  All 
lovers  of  truth  readily  acknowledge  these  mys- 
terious harmonies  and  the  force  of  arguments 
derived  from  them.  To  them  the  things  on 
earth  are  copies  of  the  things  in  heaven. 
They  know  that  the  earthly  tabernacle  is  made 
after  the  pattern  of  things  seen  in  the  mount. 

“It  is  a great  misunderstanding  of  the 
matter  to  think  of  these  as  happily,  but  yet 
arbitrarily,  chosen  illustrations.  Rather  they 
belong  to' one  another , the  type  and  the  thing 
typified,  by  an  inward  necessity ; they  were 
linked  together  long  before  by  the  law  of  a 
secret  afiinity.  It  is  not  a happ}'-  accident  that 


Sex,  Love  mid  Marriage  Eternal.  75 

has  yielded  so  wondrous  an  analogy  as  that  of 
husband  and  wife,  to  set  forth  the  mystery  of 
Christ’s  relation  to  his  Church.  There  is  far 
more  in  it  than  this : the  earthly  relation  is 
indeed  hut  a lower  form  of  the  heavenly,  on 
which  it  rests  and  of  which  it  is  the  utter- 
ancel’’  Such  is  precisely  Swedenborg’s  basis 
for  his  doctrine  of  conjugial  love. 

Archbishop  Trench  is  a distinguished  author- 
ity on  the  etymology  and  significance  of  words, 
and  he  goes  on  to  say : 

“Out  of  a true  sense  of  this  secret  affinity, 
has  grown  our  use  of  the  word  likely.  There 
is  a confident  expectation  in  the  minds  of  men 
of  the  reappearance  in  higher  spheres  of  the 
same  laws  and  revelations  which  they  have 
recognized  in  the  lower ; and  thus  that  which 
is  like  is  also  likely  or  probable.” 

What  is  more  likely  or  probable  than  the  re- 
appearance in  higher  spheres  of  the  laws  and 
relations  of  sex,  love,  and  marriage,  seeing  they 
constitute  so  largely  the  basis  of  the  physical, 
social,  and  historical  development  of  human 
life? 

Thus  the  analogy  or  concordance  between 


76  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

spirit  and  matter,  the  unity  and  omnipresence 
of  God,  the  universality  of  his  laws,  their  con- 
tinuous operation  in  both  worlds,  the  percep- 
tion that  similar  causes  produce  similar  effects, 
the  immortality  and  identity  of  human  spirits, 
all  combine  with  the  inexplicable  intuitions  of 
our  own  hearts  to  assure  us  that  the  life  to 
come  is  essentially  a continuation  of  this  on  a 
subtler  and  grander  field,  having  similar  forms, 
affections,  and  relations  both  personal  and 
social. 

Let  no  one  suppose,  however,  that  there  will 
be  no  difference  between  heaven  and  earth. 
Earth  at  its  best  is  but  the  shadow  of  heaven, 
which  immeasurably  exceeds  it  in  the  perfec- 
tion and  glory  of  its  forms  and  the  rapidity  and 
beauty  of  their  changes.  Freed  for  ever  from 
the  disorganizing  influences  of  evil,  lifted  into 
purer  and  sweeter  atmospheres  of  life,  the 
affections  and  thoughts  of  the  soul  will  expand 
indefinitely.  The  peace  and  joy  of  personal 
relations  in  the  Hereafter,  the  harmony  and 
strength  of  social  institutions,  transcend  our 
present  greatest  conceptions.  Our  love  and 
knowledge  of  God  will  be  perpetually  increas- 


Sex,  Love  a7id  Marriage  Eternal. 


77 


ing,  and  He  will  be  thereby  enabled  to  give  us 
ever  new  and  more  glorious  revelations  of  his 
goodness  and  power.  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 
ear  heard,  more  than  a poor  fraction  of  the 
heavenly  life  as  it  is,  and  no  heart  hath  imag- 
ined its  possibilities  in  the  future. 

Oh  the  hopes,  the  fears,  the  longings,  the 
imperishable  activities  of  conjugial  love  ! Its 
intensity  reminds  us  of  what  Paul  said  about 
the  love  of  Christ.  Indeed,  the  marriage  of 
Christ  with  the  Christian  heart  is  typified  in  the 
inseparable  union  of  two  congenial  souls  ; and 
the  fervid  words  of  the  apostle  are  as  applicable 
to  the  true  husband  and  wife  as  to  the  Bride- 
groom and  his  Church  : 

“Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ?  Shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  perse- 
cution, or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or  the 
sword  ? 

“Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than 
conquerors,  through  Him  that  loved  us. 

“ For  I am  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor 
life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers, 
nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall 


78  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.” 

Like  Solomon’s  song,  this  is  the  language  of 
conjugial  love  as  well  as  of  religious  fervor. 

How  sweetly  does  that  pure-hearted  and 
saintly  woman,  Mrs.  John  Fletcher,  plead  for 
a perfect  reunion  with  her  great  and  good  hus- 
band, who  preceded  her  thirty  years  into  the 
kingdom  of  light  and  love  ! — 

“As  spiritual  union  arises  from  a communi- 
cation of  the  love  which  flows  from  the  heart 
of  Christ,  I cannot  but  believe  that  a nearer 
approach  to  its  centre,  and  a fuller  measure  of 
that  divine  principle,  must  increase  and  not 
diminish  the  union  between  kindred  souls. 
Will  not,  it  is  asked,  all  particular  unions 
cease?  and  is  it  not  the  design  of  God  that 
death  should  divide  husband  and  wife?  To 
answer  this  objection  I must  premise  that,  what 
is  of  God  shall  stand.  I plead  only  for  that 
union  which  has  God  as  its  source  ; and  I think 
it  will  not  be  hard  to  prove  that,  what  God  hath 
joined  together,  death  cannot  -put  asunder. 
Division  comes  not  from  God,  but  the  devil.” 

Far  away — the  moral  antipode  to  this  pure 


Sex,  Love  and  Alarriage  Eternal.  79 

and  saintly  soul — we  find  the  gross  and  reck- 
less Byron,  in  some  happy  moment  of  spirit- 
ual insight,  felicitously  expressing  the  same 
truth : 

“ There  are  two  souls  of  equal  flow, 

Whose  gentle  streams  so  calmly  run, 

That  when  they  part — they  part?  Oh  no! 

They  cannot  part ! those  souls  are  one  !” 

indeed,  the  poets  are  all  with  Swedenborg 
on  this  question.  For  the  perception  of  spiritual 
truth,  they  are  more  trustworthy  than  theologians 
or  philosophers.  They  stoutly  ignore  the  fact 
of  death,  and  color  time  and  eternity  with  the 
purple  splendors  of  love.  The  expounders, 
the  custodians,  the  very  aiTists  of  love,  they 
trample  boldly  on  theological  and  popular  fal- 
lacies, and  speak  of  the  reunion  of  husbands 
and  wives  in  heaven,  as  if  it  was  a matter  of 
course  and  to  be  expected  by  every  rational 
man. 

One  of  the  grandest  passages  in  Tennyson  or 
any  other  poet,  is  where  King  Arthur  takes 
his  farewell  leave  of  the  guilty  Guinever,  who 
had  wrought  the  ruin  of  his  kingdom  and  his 
home,  and  who  lay  groveling  at  his  feet  upon 


8o  The  Sexes ; Here  aitd  Hereafter. 

the  floor.  The  stern  reproaches  of  blighted 
glory  and  honor  softly  subside  into  expressions 
of  forgiveness  and  pity,  and  the  peerless  hus- 
band, heartbroken  and  marching  to  his  doom, 
begs  of  the  penitent  wife,  from  whom  he  felt 
nimself  inseparable,  the  hope  at  least  of  her 
purified  love  in  heaven  : 

“ My  love  through  flesh  hath  wrought  into  my  life 
So  far,  my  doom  is  that  I love  thee  still. 

Let  no  man  dream  but  that  I love  thee  still. 

Perchance,  and  so  thou  purify  thy  soul. 

And  so  thou  lean  on  our  fair  Father,  Christ, 

Hereafter,  in  that  world  where  all  are  pure. 

We  two  ma}'  meet  before  high  God,  and  thou 
Wilt  spring  to  me  and  claim  me  thine,  and  know 
I am  thy  husband — not  a smaller  soul. 

Nor  Lancelot,  nor  another.  Leave  me  that, 

I charge  thee,  my  last  hope.” 

And  the  remorseful  queen,  who  dedicated 
herself  to  humility,  chastity,  and  devotion,  until 
she  passed  purified 

“ To  where,  beyond  these  voices,  there  is  peace,” 

treasured  this  little  hope  bequeathed  her  by  the 
king,  as  the  sacred  germ  of  the  new  life  spring- 
ing up  in  her  soul. 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Eternal.  Si 

“What  hope?  ' I think  there  was  a hope, 

Except  he  mocked  me  when  he  spake  of  hope ; 

His  hope  he  called  it;  but  he  never  mocks, 

For  mockerj  is  the  fume  of  little  hearts; 

And  blessed  be  the  king  who  hath  forgiven 
My  wickedness  to  him,  and  left  me  hope 
That  in  mine  own  heart  I can  live  down  sin. 

And  be  his  mate  hereafter  in  the  heavens 
Before  high  God.” 

There  is  a beautiful  Grecian  myth  versified 
by  Bulwer  in  his  “ Lost  Tales  of  Miletus,” 
which  not  only  teaches  marriage  in  heaven,  but 
the  still  more  advanced  truth  that  those  mar- 
riages are  determined  by  the  inmost,  ineradi- 
cable, indestructible  spiritual  affinity  of  the  two 
souls,  independently  of  anything  which  occur- 
red during  their  earthly  lives. 

The  argument  is  this  : Leonymus  of  Croton, 
invading  Locria,  was  wounded  by  a phantom 
figure  of  Ajax,  “guarding  still  his  native  soil.” 
This  ghostly  wound  could  not  be  healed  by  any 
physical  means ; and  the  sufferer  was  sent  by 
the  oracle  to  the  Isle  of  Happy  Souls,  where 
he  was  told  he  could  be  cured  by  the  touch  of 
the  spirit-hand  which  had  inflicted  the  injury. 
The  poet  does  not  tell  us  how  Leonymus  got 


82  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

into  the  spiritual  regions  in  search  of  his  ho- 
mcEopathic  cure ; but,  when  he  did  get  there, 
he  found  a beautiful  external  nature  remark- 
ably like  ours,  and  Achilles,  the  greatest  war- 
rior of  Greece,  and  Helen,  its  most  beautiful 
woman,  enemies  in  the  earth-life,  enjoying  an 
eternity  of  wedded  bliss. 

The  visions  of  the  prophet  and  the  intuitions 
of  the  poet  have  been  verified  by  the  observa- 
tions of  Swedenborg,  who  teaches,  not  from 
theory  or  fancy,  but  “ from  things  heard  and 
seen,”  as  he  himself  expresses  it,  that  men  and 
women  are  still  male-  and  female  in  the  other 
life ; that  they  are  drawn  together  there  by 
the  same  spiritual  affinity  which  attracted  them 
here ; and  that  in  heaven  the  relation  of  hus- 
band and  wife  is  established  on  a sure,  beau- 
tiful, holy,  and  immutable  basis. 

How  beautiful,  how  real,  how  near  the  other 
life  becomes,  when  we  view  it  from  this  stand- 
point ! All  that  has  been  said  or  sung  of  the 
charms  and  pleasures  of  home,  and  of  the  un- 
speakable delights  of  newly-wedded  love,  is 
“ imaged  there  in  happier  beauty.”  The  per- 
fected married  pair  is  the  type  of  the  Lord’s 


Sex,  Love  and  Marriage  Eternal.  83 

Church,  the  miniature  form  of  Heaven,  the 
centre  of  divine  influx,  the  repository  of  divine 
life,  the'  crowning  work  of  the  divine  wis- 
dom, the  consummated  flower  of  the  divine 
love. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WHAT  OUR  LORD  SAYS  ABOUT  IT. 

the  resurrection  they  neither  marry 
)r  are  giv^en  in  marriage ; but  are  as 
e angels  of  God  in  heaven.” 

So  spake  Jesus  to  the  Sadducees,  who  told 
him  of  the  woman  who  had  seven  successive 
husbands,  and  who  asked  him,  After  death, 
whose  wife  shall  she  be? 

Marriage  was  established  by  the  Lord  him- 
self in  the  warden  of  Eden.  It  was  the  first 

o 

and  holiest  institutional  work  of  his  hands ; 
preceding  his  Church,  preceding  his  Word, 
preceding  his  Heaven, — for  all  angels  have 
been  men,  and  are  the  offspring  of  marriage. 
Before  the  fall,  man  and  woman  were  husband 
and  wife  in  the  purest  innocence  and  love ; and 
they  were  then,  what  they  have  never  been 
since,  the  perfect  image  and  likeness  of  God, 
precisely  as  the  angels  are  now. 

8i 


\\'hat  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  85 

The  Lord  has  perpetuated  and  blessed  this 
heavenly  institution  which  He  then  ordained. 
“ Houses  and  riches,”  says  Solomon,  “ are  the 
inheritance  of  fathers ; but  a prudent  wife  is 
from  the  Lord.”  “ Marriage  is  honorable  in 
all,  and  the  bed  undefiled,”  says  the  apostle. 

Marriage  is  used  as  the  type  of  the  union  of 
the  Lord  with  his  Church  ; and  the  wanderings 
of  the  heart  from  God,  and  the  consequent 
falsifications  of  his  holy  Word,  are  described 
as  conjugal  infidelities  which  leave  their  dark- 
ening and  deadening  ■ effects  upon  the  soul. 
Marriage  is  also  the  type  of  regeneration  and 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  individual  spirit, — 
of  the  union  of  God’s  goodness  and  truth  in  the 
individual  life.  How  holy  must  be  the  essence 
of  marriage  when  such  is  its  signification  ! 

Our  Lord’s  first  miracle  was  performed  at  a 
marriage-feast,  which  represented  that  union 
of  goodness  and  truth,  of  charity  and  faith,  in 
which  alone  the  divine  power  and  presence  be- 
come manifest.  The  water  was  turned  into 
wine,  to  represent  how  the  natural  truths  of  the 
Word  are  made  spiritual  to  our  perceptions  by 
a life  according  to  the  commandments.  By  the 

H 


88  The  Sexes;  Here  a7td  Hereafter. 

We  must  not  be  so  hasty  and  self-confident 
as  to  suppose  that  we  see  the  Lord’s  meaning 
at  a glance ; that  the  truth  shines  on  the  sur- 
face ; that  the  sense  most  obvious  to  every 
reader  is  the  genuine  sense.  Natural  things 
may  sometimes  be  seen  at  a glance,  because 
they  are  discovered  by  the  natural  senses  ; they 
shine  on  the  surface  because  they  are  super- 
ficial. Spiritual  truths  are  all  interior  and 
coherent,  woven  together  by  spiritual  laws, 
unseen  by  the  carnal  eye,  and  symbolized  in 
Scripture  by  forms  and  modes  of  speech  which 
need  interpretation. 

“ Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my 
blood  hath  eternal  life,”  said  Jesus  in  the  lan- 
guage of  spiritual  symbolism.  The  Jews  “strove 
among  themselves,  saying.  How  can  this  man 
give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  ?”  His  bewildered  dis- 
ciples also  said,  “This  is  a hard  saying;  who 
can  hear  it?”  And  the  Saviour  left  the  Jews  in 
their  mental  darkness ; but  he  declared  to  his 
disciples  that  his  intention  was  to  convey  spir- 
itual truth  under  natural  or  literal  forms  of  ex- 
pression. “Doth  this  offend  jmu?”  he  inquired. 
“It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth  : the  flesh  prof- 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  89 

iteth  nothing  : the  words  that  I speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life.”  The  expla- 
nation was  insufficient.  Many  of  his  disciples 
went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him  ; and 
he  said  sorrowfully  to  the  twelve:  “Will  ye 
also  go  away?”  So  hard  is  it  for  the  unregen- 
erate mind  to  recognize  spiritual  truth  under  its 
corresponding  literal  forms,  to  which  it  insists 
upon  giving  nothing  but  the  most  obvious, 
literal  interpretation. 

“The  letter  killeth,”  says  Paul,  “but  the 
spirit  giveth  life.” 

The  spirit  is  needed  to  give  life  to  many 
parts  of  the  Scripture  which  the  letter  has 
killed.  The  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis, 
evidently  so  different  from  all  the  rest,  the  sin- 
gular incidents  of  Jewish  history,  the  appar- 
ently trifling  details  of  the  Jewish  law,  the 
dark  sayings  and  unintelligible  symbols  of  the  . 
prophets,  and  the  mystical  visions  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse, are  all  instinct  with  spiritual  life  and 
beauty,  needing  the  voice  of  the  interpreter  to 
decypher  their  hieroglyphics  and  to  utilize  their 
transcendent  truths.  Happy  will  it  be  for  the 
Chirrch  and  the  world  when  they  recognize  the 

H « 


90  The  Sexes  j IIe7'e  and  Hereafter. 

great  fact  that  the  Second  Coming  of  the  Lord 
is  not  a personal  appearance  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  but  a new  revelation  of  the  Divine 
Wisdom  through  the  clouds — or  literal  sense — of 
the  Sacred  Scripture. 

There  is,  then,  a spiritual  sense  to  the  Bible. 
The  true  meaning  of  any  passage  of  Scripture 
is  always  found  in  the  spiritual  sense.  Why 
should  the  literal  and  spiritual  senses  ever  seem 
to  differ?  Because  when  the  natural  mind  is 
incapable  of  receiving  spiritual  truth  in  its 
purity,  it  alwa3^s  gives  it  a natural  or  literal 
interpretation.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss 
thoroughly  the  coexistence  of  two  senses  in  the 
Bible.  We  affirm  the  fact,  and  say  that  in  the 
most  obscure  and  difficultpassages  we  find  bril- 
liant and  glorious  truths  in  the  spiritual  sense, 
which  do  not  in  the  least  appear  in  the  letter. 

. “All  these  things  spake  Jesus  unto  the  multi- 
tude in  parables,  and  without  a parable  spake 
he  not  unto  them. 

“And  when  they  were  alone,  he  expounded 
all  things  unto  his  disciples. 

“And  the  disciples  came  and  said  unto  him. 
Why  speakest  thou  unto  them  in  parables? 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  91 

“ He  answered  and  said  unto  them  : Because 
it  is  given  unto  you  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not 
given.” 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  the  words  of  Christ 
contain  a double  meaning,  an  internal  and  an 
external.  The  external  sense  fell  upon  the  ear 
of  the  multitude  in  the  shape  of  parables  or 
mystical  sayings,  to  which  each  man  gave  a 
literal  interpretation  according  to  his  degree  of 
natural  light,  or  his  own  analytic  and  imagina- 
tive powers.  The  other  sense,  explaining  the 
parables  and  unfolding  the  “mysteries  of 
heaven,”  was  reserved  for  those  who  could 
retire  from  the  world  “alone”  with  Jesus,  and 
become  receptive  of  truth  in  a higher  or  spir- 
itual degree.  The  same  distinction  exists  to- 
day. The  literalists  stand  outside  with  the 
multitude,  and  are  not  permitted  to  know  “ the 
mysteries  of  heaven”  which  lie  concealed  in  the 
internal  sense  of  the  Word. 

Thus  also  one  dispensation  of  truth  is  interior 
to  and  higher  than  another,  not  to  be  understood 
by  those  who  occupy  the  lower  and  more  ex- 
ternal standpoint.  Paul  told  the  Jews  that  the 


90  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

great  fact  that  the  Second  Coming  of  the  Lord 
is  not  a personal  appearance  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  but  a new  revelation  of  the  Divine 
Wisdom  through  the  clouds — or  literal  sense — of 
the  Sacred  Scripture. 

There  is,  then,  a spiritual  sense  to  the  Bible. 
The  true  meaning  of  any  passage  of  Scripture 
is  always  found  in  the  spiritual  sense.  Why 
should  the  literal  and  spiritual  senses  ever  seem 
to  differ?  Because  when  the  natural  mind  is 
incapable  of  receiving  spiritual  truth  in  its 
purity,  it  always  gives  it  a natural  or  literal 
interpretation.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss 
thoroughly  the  coexistence  of  two  senses  in  the 
Bible.  We  affirm  the  fact,  and  say  that  in  the 
most  obscure  and  difficultpassages  we  find  bril- 
liant and  glorious  truths  in  the  spiritual  sense, 
which  do  not  in  the  least  appear  in  the  letter. 

. “All  these  things  spake  Jesus  unto  the  multi- 
tude in  parables,  and  without  a parable  spake 
he  not  unto  them. 

“And  when  they  were  alone,  he  expounded 
all  things  unto  his  disciples. 

“And  the  disciples  came  and  said  unto  him. 
Why  speakest  thou  unto  them  in  parables? 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  91 

“ He  answered  and  said  unto  them  : Because 
it  is  given  unto  you  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not 
given.” 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  the  words  of  Christ 
contain  a double  meaning,  an  internal  and  an 
external.  The  external  sense  fell  upon  the  ear 
of  the  multitude  in  the  shape  of  parables  or 
mystical  sayings,  to  which  each  man  gave  a 
literal  interpretation  according  to  his  degree  of 
natural  light,  or  his  own  analytic  and  imagina- 
tive powers.  The  other  sense,  explaining  the 
parables  and  unfolding  the  “ luysteries  of 
heaven,”  was  reserved  for  those  who  could 
retire  from  the  world  “ alone”  with  Jesus,  and 
become  receptive  of  truth  in  a higher  or  spir- 
itual degree.  The  same  distinction  exists  to- 
day. The  literalists  stand  outside  with  the 
multitude,  and  are  not  permitted  to  know  “ the 
mysteries  of  heaven”  which  lie  concealed  in  the 
internal  sense  of  the  Word. 

Thus  also  one  dispensation  of  truth  is  interior 
to  and  higher  than  another,  not  to  be  understood 
by  those  who  occupy  the  lower  and  more  ex- 
ternal standpoint.  Paul  told  the  Jews  that  the 


92  The  Sexes;  Here  a7td  Hereafter, 

story  of  Hagar  and  Ishmael  was  an  allegory 
involving  spiritual  truths  which  they  had  never 
suspected  to  exist  in  it ; and  that  the  veil  which 
Moses  had  put  over  his  face,  concealing  the 
divine  light,  was  still  upon  their  own  hearts 
when  Moses  was  read  in  the  temple.  Swe- 
denborg has  been  empowered  to  reveal  the  still 
deeper  meaning  hidden  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
to  lift  the  veil  of  both  Moses  and  Paul  from  the 
mind  of  the  Apostolic  Church. 

We  are  not  wandering  at  all  from  the  subject 
of  marriage  in  heaven,  as  the  reader  will  soon 
discover. 

As  the  soul  or  living  spirit  requires  a natural 
body  for  its  outward  manifestation,  so  the  living 
spirit  of  God’s  Word  required  a literal  form  or 
body  for  its  outward  expression.  As  our  nat- 
ural body  is  feeble  and  imperfect  from  its  neces- 
sary limitations  in  time  and  space,  and  is  thus 
a poor  and  inadequate  manifestation  of  the  im- 
mortal soul  within,  so  the  letter  of  the  Word, 
being  expressed  through  the  finite  minds  of  a 
feeble  and  sensuous  race,  takes  on  their  imper- 
fections, and  reveals  in  its  external  forms  very 
little  indeed  of  the  divine  glory  which  illumin- 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  93 

ates  its  interior.  To  insist  that  the  divine  reve- 
lation lies  in  the  letter  of  the  Word  alone,  is 
like  attributing  all  life  and  power  to  the  material 
body,  denying  the  spiritual  element  within  it. 

Without  the  body,  no  soul  could  be  mani- 
fested. Therefore  the  letter  of  the  Word 
should  be  the  object  of  scinipulous  care.  On 
its  preservation,  its  accuracy,  its  purity,  depend 
our  hopes  of  getting  at  the  genuine  truth  within. 
But  to  limit  the  revelation  of  divine  truth  to  the 
letter  alone,  is  to  circumscribe,  depreciate,  and 
really  dishonor  the  gospel.  It  is  the  demand 
of  the  sensuous  skeptic  that  a revelation  from 
God  shall  be  perfectly  simple  and  intelligible  to 
all,  bearing  its  meaning  on  the  surface,  and  as 
plain  and  clear  as  the  edicts  of  an  earthly  king. 
And  this  were  a reasonable  demand  if  the 
real  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  Word  is  to  be 
drawn  from  the  letter.  But  the  skeptic  finds 
the  Bible  full  of  strange  and  miraculous  histo- 
ries, mysterious  prophecies,  and  inexplicable 
visions,  about  the  true  meaning  of  which  the 
whole  Christian  world  is  sadly  divided  in  opin- 
ion ; and  he  rejects  it  all  as  the  work  of  impos- 
ture or  fanaticism. 


94  The  Sexes J Here  and  HereaJ'ler. 

The  Christian  who  is  capable  of  spiritual 
thought  above  the  senses,  who  believes  the 
Bible  to  be  inspired,  and  to  contain  the  wisdom 
of  Him  who  created  the  universe  both  of  mind 
and  matter, — he  ought  to  be  the  fii'st  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  Scriptures  may,  and  indeed 
must,  have  meaning  within  meaning  for  angels 
as  well  as  men ; that,  being  constructed  by  the 
Author  of  the  visible  and  invisible  creation,  and 
according  to  the  same  immutable  laws,  the  Bible 
must  be  as  vast,  as  deep,  as  complex,  as  myriad- 
sided as  creation  itself.  Its  essential  divinity 
cannot,  therefore,  reside  in  the  mere  letter. 

It  is  a great  error  to  suppose  that  spiritual 
interpretation  would  give  a loose  rein  to  the 
imagination,  and  flood  the  Church  with  wild 
theories  and  fantastic  speculations.  Nothing 
could  be  more  remote  from  the  truth  than  this. 
It  is  the  bare  letter  which  has  done  all  this 
harm.  It  is  the  letter  which  has  torn  the 
Church  with  schism  and  filled  it  with  false 
doctrines.  It  is  the  letter  to  which  every  sect 
appeals  in  support  of  its  peculiar  tenets.  It  is 
the  letter  which  has  created  the  carping  spirit 
of  rationalism,  and  winged  the  shafts  of  infidel- 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  95 

ity.  How  strange  that  the  Christian  Church 
should  not  yet  have  generally  discovered  that 
“the  letter  killeth that  “the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing that  the  Lord’s  words  are  spirit  and 
life ; that  the  Holy  Book  is  written  within  as 
well  as  without;  that  the  rock  conceals  water 
in  its  bosom  ; that  the  water  contains  wine  inte- 
riorly ; and  that  the  inmost  of  the  wine  is  the 
blood — the  living  spirit — of  the  Lord  ! 

The  spiritual  sense  revealed  by  Swedenborg 
bears  no  resemblance  to  the  fanciful  traditions 
of  the  Hebrew  Cabalists,  and  scarcely  any  to 
the  ingenious  speculations  of  Origen  and  other 
Christian  writers.  It  was  not  imagined,  con- 
ceived, discovered,  or  invented  by  Swedenborg 
at  all.  It  was  revealed  to  him  from  heaven  by 
a special  illumination  of  his  mind.  It  has 
always  existed  in  heaven  ; it  is  the  food  of 
angelic  minds ; and  its  revelation  to  men  will 
reconnect  heaven  and  earth.  This  spiritual 
sense  is  indivisible  like  the  inner  garment  of 
the  Lord.  It  is  a fixed,  organic,  coherent,  unit- 
izing system  of  Divine  Truth,  which  cannot, 
like  the  letter,  be  interpreted  in  different  ways. 

Convinced,  now,  that  there  is  an  interior, 


96  The  Sexes;  IIei-e  and  Hereayter. 

higher,  and  spiritual  meaning  to  what  our 
Lord  says,  which  may  or  may  not  shine 
through  the  outer  and  literal  statement,  let  us 
consider  his  remark  about  marriage  in  heaven. 
Remember  that  he  always  means  spiritual 
things,  when  the  literal  expression  appears  to 
relate  only  to  natural  things.  The  water  of 
which  he  spake  to  the  woman  at  the  well,  was 
spiritual  water ; the  meat  which  his  disciples 
knew  nothing  of,  was  spiritual  meat ; the  wine 
and  bread  of  the  holy  supper  were  spiritual 
elements — his  own  goodness  and  truth.  When 
he  spake  of  death,  he  meant  spiritual  death ; 
of  the  resurrection,  he  meant  a spiritual  resur- 
rection; for  he  says  “I  am  the  resurrection.” 
When  he  alluded  to  father,  mother,  and  breth- 
ren, he  meant  spiritual  relationships,  disclaim- 
ing all  others.  When  he  spoke  of  marriage, 
however  gross  and  carnal  our  idea  of  it  may 
be,  he  meant  spiritual  marriage,  and  that  only. 

Spiritual  marriage?  What  is  that?  There 
is  a common  opinion  that  although  there  is  no 
marriage  in  heaven  in  the  least  resembling 
ours,  still  there  is  a mystical  union  of  kindred 
souls — a blending  together  in  eternal  harmony 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  97 

of  tender  thoughts  and  gentle  sympathies,  so 
that  two  lives  may  become  spiritually  one. 
Swedenborg  has  dissipated  the  obscuring  mists 
which  have  hitherto  surrounded  this  subject, 
and  by  actual  observation  and  experience  has 
revealed  the  constitution  of  the  spiritual  world, 
as  the  scientific  men  of  our  earth  have  discov- 
ered the  constitution  of  the  natural  world. 

He  finds  that  the  spiritual  and  the  natural 
worlds  correspond  to  each  other.  He  finds 
that  everything  which  exists  in  the  natural 
world  is  repeated  in  the  spiritual  world  in  spir- 
itual forms.  We  have  shown  in  our  first  chapter 
that  everything  in  nature  is  bi-sexual ; that  elec- 
tric and  magnetic  polarities  divide  every  object 
and  every  atom  in  every  object  into  positive 
and  negative  or  male  and  female  forms,  which 
have  for  each  other  special  affinities,  and  are 
forever  striving  for  equilibrium,  union,  or,  as 
we  prefer  to  say,  marriage. 

This  great  natural  law  is  an  image  or  corre- 
spondence of  the  spiritual  law,  that  every  spir- 
itual force  or  form  is  positive  or  negative,  male 
or  female.  Every  idea  of  the  mind  is  com- 
pounded of  the  affections  and  thoughts  which 
7 I 


98  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

give  it  outward  expression.  When  the  affec- 
tion (female)  is  married  to  the  thought  (male) 
we  have  the  outward  manifestations  of  life, 
sensation,  perception,  action.  Forms  or  ob- 
lects  are  bound  together  in  the  spiritual  world 
by  affinities  similar  to  those  which  exist  in  the 
natural  world.  The  female  forms  have  relation 
to  love  or  goodness ; the  male  forms  have  rela- 
tion to  truth  or  wisdom.  Their  marriage  pro- 
duces the  outer  world,  whether  spiritual  or 
natural.  Goodness  alone,  or  truth  alone,  is 
nothing  ; combined,  they  are  all  things.  They 
only  become  objective  when  subjectively  united. 

This  great  truth,  lying  at  the  basis  of  all  cre- 
tions,  is  thus  beautifull}^  expressed  by  a heaven- 
inspired  poet : 

“ Such  perfect  friends  are  Truth  and  Love, 

That  neither  lives  where  both  are  not.” 

The  first  or  primaiy  form  of  marriage  is  the 
perfect  union  of  the  will  and  understanding, 
of  the  affections  and  thoughts,  of  the  emotions 
and  the  intellect,  of  charity  and  faith,  in  the 
individual  soul.  The  regenerate  man  is  the 
man  in  whom  pure  and  holy  affections  are  so 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  99 

wedded  to  true  and  wise  thoughts,  that  his 
entire  life  is  divinely  moved  to  good  actions. 

A more  complex  form  of  the  same  marriage 
exists  between  the  sexes,  both  here  and  here- 
after. Man  and  woman  alike  have  in  them- 
selves individually  the  elements  of  goodness 
and  truth,  and  must  each  attain  that  marriage 
of  pure  affection  and  wise  thought,  which  is 
regeneration.  But  sexually  the}'  are  different. 
Woman  is  the  form  of  goodness,  man  the  form 
of  truth.  These  exercise  the  same  love  or  at- 
traction for  each  other  as  the  affections  and 
thoughts  do  in  the  individual  mind.  Men  and 
women  love  each  other  just  as  each  individual 
loves  what  he  believes  and  believes  what  he 
loves. 

A still  more  complex  form  of  marriage  is 
between  the  Lord  and  his  Church.  Here  the 
married  couple,  regenerate  in  themselves,  re- 
generate in  their  union  with  each  other,  make 
the  unit  or  least  form  of  the  Church,  which  is 
female  or  negative  in  relation  to  the  male  or 
positive  Divine  Humanity  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
animates  and  impregnates  the  two-souls-in-one 
with  all  the  glories,  beauties,  harmonies,  peace. 


:oo  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

order,  love,  of  the  spiritual  and  eternal  life.  To 
one  of  these  three  marriages, — the  marriage  of 
the  will  and  the  understanding  in  the  regene- 
rate life  of  each  individual ; the  marriage  of  the 
Divine  Goodness  and  the  Divine  Truth  repre- 
sented in  objective  male  and  female  forms,  hus- 
band and  wife ; or  the  mandage  of  a spiritual 
being  compounded  of  two  congenial  beings  to 
the  great  Bridegroom  of  the  Church, — to  one 
of  these  three  marriages,  and  indeed  to  all  of 
them  in  turn,  every  scriptural  sentence  alluding 
to  marriage,  when  rightly  understood,  will  be 
found  to  refer. 

The  reader  ma}'  hastily  conclude  from  this 
explanation,  that  our  Lord,  in  sa3’ing  that  " in 
the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage,”  has  affirmed  that  in  the 
spiritual  life  there  is  no  union  of  the  good 
and  true,  no  marriage  of  charity  and  faith, 
none  of  the  very  things  which  we  have  de- 
scribed as  the  essential  and  organic  elements 
of  the  spiritual  world.  A closer  inspection, 
however,  will  convince  him  of  his  error. 

The  interpretation  of  the  passage  evidendy 
turns  upon  the  meaning  of  “ marrying  and  giv- 


What  oiir  Lord  Says  About  it.  loi 

ing  in  marriage.”  About  the  natural  significa- 
tion of  the  words  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But 
most  readers  have  never  yet  learned  the  fact, 
that  the  spiritual  signification  of  words  and 
things  is  twofold.  The  same  words  in  the 
Bible  have  two  different  and  opposite  senses, 
according  as  they  refer  to  good  or  evil,  to  the 
true  or  the  false,  or  according  as  they  relate  to 
heaven  or  hell. 

The  fundamental  cause  of  this  is,  that  the 
evil  and  false  have  no  absolute  and  independent 
existence,  but  are  simply  perversions  of  the 
good  and  true  ; as  disease  is  not  a real  object  or 
power,  but  only  a perversion  or  disturbance  of 
the  natural  healthy  functions.  The  good  and 
the  evil  spiritual  powers  are  often  symbolized 
in  nature  under  the  same  forms.  Thus  there  is 
a marriage  which  is  not  only  possible  in  heaven, 
but  which  is  heaven  itself;  and  there  is  also  a 
marriage  not  only  impossible  but  incomprehen- 
sible to  angelic  beings.  And  both  of  these  spir- 
itual marriages  are  represented  by  the  natural 
symbol — marriage — as  it  comes  to  our  natural 
perception. 

This  is  a point  of  so  much  importance  to  an 

r«- 


102  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

intelligent  comprehension  of  Scripture  myste- 
ries, and  of  this  one  in  particular,  that  we  must 
press  its  careful  consideration  on  the  reader. 

Let  us  take  the  word  -water.,  and  we  shall  see 
that  it  has  two  opposite  significations  according 
to  the  context. 

The  waters  which  gushed  from  the  rock  in 
Horeb,  to  save  the  dying  multitudes ; the  “ still 
waters”  associated  with  the  “ green  pastures” 
in  the  land  of  the  Good  Shepherd  : the  water 
of  life,  “clear  as  crystal;”  and  the  consecrated 
water  of  baptism,  are  all  evidently  significative 
of  divine  truth  in  its  regenerating  influence  on 
the  soul.  But  when  the  Psalmist  exclaims, 
“ Save  me,  O God  ! for  the  waters  are  come  in 
unto  my  soul,”  he  evidently  means  some  kind 
of  waters  very  different  from  the  preceding. 
He  evidently  means  no  natural  waters  what- 
ever. He  means  those  false  and  deadly  per- 
suasions which  would  assault  and  destroy  his 
faith  in  God.  He  means  falsities  opposite  to 
the  truths  of  heaven ; for  water  in  its  good 
sense  refers  to  truth,  and  in  its  opposite  sense 
to  falsity. 

Take  the  symbolic  meaning  of  the  word 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  103 

sword.  “They  that  take  the  sword  shall 
perish  by  the  sword”  is  the  solemn  warning  of 
the  gospel.  “They  shall  beat  their  swords 
into  ploughshares,”  is  a prediction  of  a state  of 
heavenly  peace.  But  the  same  gospel,  in  ap- 
parent though  not  real  contradiction  to  itself, 
says,  “Prepare  war:  beat  your  ploughshares 
into  swords;”  and  again:  “He  that  hath  no 
sword,  let  him  sell  his  garment  and  buy  one.” 
These  are  respectively  the  swords  of  truth  and  of 
its  opposite  falsity — the  one  used  in  the  defence 
of  the  good,  the  other  in  the  aggressions  of  the 
evil ; and  the  meaning  demanded  in  each  place 
is  determined,  not  by  the  word,  which  is  two- 
fold in  its  signification,  but  always  by  the 
context. 

The  Bible  recognizes  two  meanings  to  the 
word  -peace.  How  tenderly  does  the  great 
Prince  of  Peace  touch  the  hearts  of  his  disci- 
ples by  those  sweet  words:  “Peace  I leave 
with  you;  my  peace  I give  unto  you!”  Yet 
the  same  Prince  of  Peace  also  declares : 
“Think  not  that  I am  come  to  send  peace 
on  earth : I am  not  come  to  send  peace,  but  a 
sword.”  The  heavenly  peace  which  the  Lord 


104  The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

sends  the  good,  is  the  unition  of  the  soul  with 
himself.  The  world’s  peace,  the  infernal  peace 
of  the  evil,  is  the  obdurate  heart,  the  seared 
conscience,  the  quiet  mind  of  the  reprobate, 
against  whose  repose  the  Lord  sends  forth  the 
sword  of  Divine  Truth. 

“ Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother”  is  a holy 
precept  of  the  decalogue.  What  does  the  Lord 
mean,  then,  by  that  strange  declaration,  “Who- 
so hateth  not  his  father  and  mother  cannot  be 
my  disciple?”  It  is  not  a sufficient  explanation 
to  say  that  this  passage  onl}^  means  that  we 
must  love  father  and  mother  less  than  we  love 
God.  Father  and  mother,  like  ever^’thing  else, 
may  be  used  in  a bad  as  well  as  a good  sense. 
The  false  and  evil  things  in  our  nature,  are  de- 
scended from  or  born  of  the  old  hereditary  mas- 
culine and  feminine  evil  principles,  which  are 
here  denominated  father  and  mother.  That 
evil  spiritual  father  and  mother  we  are  to  hate. 

The  Lord  always  ignores  natural  things  and 
appearances  when  they  do  not  represent  spirit- 
ual verities.  He  never  recognized  Joseph  as 
his  father  or  Mary  as  his  mother,  because  they 
had  no  such  spiritual  relationship  to  his  own 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  loi^ 

spirit.  He  never  called  Mary  mother  but 
“ woman.”  The  Jews  were  lineally  descended 
from  Abraham  ; but  Jesus  sternly  denies  that 
they  are  the  children  of  Abraham,  and  assigns 
them  to  their  spiritual  father:  “Ye  do  the 
works  of  your  father,  the  devil.” 

Blood  in  one  sense  is  the  symbol  of  wicked- 
ness, violence,  and  death.  In  the  other  sense  it 
is  the  symbol  of  self-sacrifice,  infinite  love,  and 
the  eternal  life  of  divine  truth.  Mountains  in 
one  sense  mean  the  supreme  or  loftiest  good 
affections  of  the  soul,  which  are  said  to  break 
forth  into  singing  and  gladness  at  the  presence 
of  the  Lord.  In  the  opposite  sense  they  are  the 
opposite  evil  affections,  which  are  to  be  removed 
and  cast  into  the  sea,  or  the  depths  of  hell,  by 
means  of  a living  faith. 

Wine  is  the  precious  emblem  of  divine  truth  ; 
and  the  feast  which  the  Divine  Wisdom  provides 
for  the  soul,  is  described  as  “a  feast  of  old 
wines.”  Yet  the  awful  heresies  with  which 
Babylon  intoxicated  the  world,  are  symbolized 
also  by  wine  : and  the  priests  of  a perishing 
church  are  described  as  erring  in  vision  and 

stumbling  in  judgment  “through  wine  and 
H 


1 


io6  The  Sexes;  Uei'e  and  Hereafter. 

strong  drink,”  which  are  false  doctrines  or 
falsifications  of  truth. 

“ Eating  and  drinking,  marr^fing  and  giving 
in  marriage,”  are  the  terms  applied  to  the 
wicked  and  sensual  antediluvians,  who  mocked 
at  Noah’s  earnest  preparations  to  escape  the 
impending  flood.  There  are  two  kinds  of 
“ eating  and  drinking.”  Here  it  is  evidently 
used  in  the  bad  sense.  But  the  solemn  declara- 
tion, “ He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh 
my  blood,  dwelleth  in  me  and  I in  him,”  ex- 
presses the  most  vital  truth  of  religion.  One 
kind  of  eating  and  drinking  is  the  appropria- 
tion of  the  evil  and  false,  and  their  assimila- 
tion into  the  organic  life  of  the  soul.  In  the 
opposite  and  good  sense,  it  is  the  appropriation 
and  assimilation  of  the  good  and  true. 

There  is  a heavenly  marriage  and  there  is  an 
infernal  marriage.  When  a man  knows  the 
truth  and  loves  to  obey  it,  he  is  in  the  heaven- 
1}^  marriage  and  wears  the  wedding-garment. 
When  he  believes  the  false  and  loves  to  live  in 
it,  he  is  in  the  opposite  or  infernal  marriage, 
and  will  assuredly  be  cast  “ into  outer  dark- 


ness. 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  107 

When  goodness  or  charity  animates  the  will 
of  man  and  truth  illumines  his  understanding, 
and  when  the}^  act  together  like  man  and  wife, 
and  good  works  are  their  offspring,  we  have 
that  marriage  between  the  complementary  parts 
of  the  individual  soul  which  we  call  regenera- 
tion. When  there  is  a similar  union  of  two 
souls,  male  and  female, — the  female  element 
representing  the  purified  affections  of  the  will 
and  the  male  element  representing  the  truthful 
thoughts  of  the  understanding, — we  have  the 
heavenly  marriage  between  the  sexes,  which 
was  instituted  by  the  Lord  in  Eden,  which  he 
has  dowered  with  his  perpetual  blessing  upon 
earth,  and  which  is  the  central  and  funda- 
mental form  of  social  life  in  heaven. 

The  infernal  marriage  is  the  exact  opposite 
of  the  heavenly.  As  every  good  affection  has 
a sympathetic  affinity  for  that  thought,  or  form 
of  wisdom,  which  gives  it  the  best  and  happiest 
expression,  so  every  evil  affection  has  a pas- 
sional attraction  for  the  specific  falsity  or  error 
which  excuses  it,  approves  of  it,  loves  it,  and 
gives  it  shape  and  power.  This  gradual  con- 
junction or  marriage  of  the  evil  and  the  false. 


io8 


The  Sexes;  Ilere  and  Hereafter. 


I 


mutually  attracting  and  espousing  each  other, 
and  then  prolific  of  a wicked  life,  is  meant  by 
the  “ eating  and  drinking,  marrying  and  giving 
in  marriage”  of  the  antediluvians. 

How  are  we  to  determine  which  kind  of 
marriage  the  Lord  meant  in  the  passage  before 
us?  Simply  as  in  all  other  cases — by  the  con- 
text. The  character  and  motives  of  the  per- 
sons who  put  the  question,  and  the  principles 
involved  in  the  case  propounded,  must  deter- 
mine the  true  meaning  of  the  response. 

Man}'-  inquiries  were  made  of  Jesus  during 
his  earth-life,  and  his  answers  were  always 
adapted  to  the  mental  and  moral  states  nf  the 
questioners.  Sometimes,  to  the  natural  man’s 
apprehension,  he  appears  to  conceal : sometimes, 
to  evade.  Sometimes  his  reply  seems  to  evince 
only  the  lower  grades  of  worldly  prudence ; 
then  gems  of  spiritual  wisdom  fall  from  his  lips  ; 
and  under  the  hig-hest  conditions  his  answer  is 
a sun-burst  of  celestial  glory.  To  the  greatest  of 
all  questions — Whence  comest  thou?  and  what 
is  truth?  he  was  profoundly  silent : for  Pilate, 
the  type  of  the  old,  perishing  pagan  civiliza- 
tions, could  not  have  received  the  glorious 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  109 

responses.  At  the  other  extreme  stands  the 
young  man  who  had  kept  all  the  command- 
ments from  his  youth,  and  whom  Jesus  loved; 
and  to  him  he  bequeaths  that  sentence  of  tran- 
scendent beauty,  incomprehensible  to  the  sen- 
sual mind  : 

“ One  thing  thou  lackest.  Go  thy  way,  sell 
whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and 
thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven  : and  come, 
take  up  the  cross  and  follow  me.” 

The  question.  Whose  wife  shall  she  be?  was 
put  by  the  Sadducees,  a party  or  sect  in  the 
Jewish  Church  which  stickled  vehementl}^  for 
a purely  literal  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. 
They  denied  the  resurrection  and  a future 
life.  It  was  to  throw  ridicule  on  the  life  after 
death,  that  they  proposed  what  they  considered 
an  insurmountable  difficulty  in  the  event  of  a 
woman  meeting  her  seven  husbands  in  another 
world.  They  put  the  question  in  a hypocritical 
and  mocking  spirit.  As  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  ob- 
serves, “ It  was  the  question  of  libertines.” 

Our  Lord  rebuked  their  literalism  by  telling 
them  that  they  erred  greatly,  “ not  knowing  the 
Scriptures,  nor  the  power  of  God.”  How  could 

K 


no  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

it  be  otherwise?  The  power  of  God  is  con- 
cealed in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures ; 
and  it  is  the  naturalism  in  men,  leading  them  to 
interpret  the  Lord’s  words  literally,  which  has 
always  caused  the  church  to  err. 

He  rebuked  their  denial  of  the  resurrection 
by  reminding  them  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  had  already  risen  from  the  dead,  and 
were  living  in  heaven, — a fact  of  which  a great 
many  literalists  need  to  be  reminded  at  the 
present  day. 

He  rebuked  their  sensuality  by  concealing 
from  their  gross  understandings  the  most  beau- 
tiful truths  of  the  heavenly  life.  There  was  no 
ground  in  such  minds  ready  for  their  reception. 
The  divine  truth  is  always  •pressing  from 
heaven  to  come  to  us  and  bless  us ; but  it  can 
come  only  through  human  mediums.  No  me- 
dium, no  truth  ; false  mediums,  false  doctrines. 
To  these  men  nothing  could  be  given  but  the 
vague,  incomprehensible  phrase,  “ They  are  as 
the  angels  of  God.” 

Examine  the  case  propounded  by  the  Saddu- 
cees,  and  you  will  discover  that  the  principles 
involved  in  its  structure  stamp  it  as  a picture 


What  oiir  Lord  Says  About  it.  1 1 1 

of  the  evil  or  infernal  marriage,  which  cannot 
exist  in  heaven,  and  which  indeed  effectually 
and  forever  excludes  from  the  heavenly  life. 

It  was  a marriage  in  which  the  prime  motive 
was  the  propagation  of  the  species ; that  he 
might  “ raise  up  seed  unto  his  brother.”  Such 
things  are  impossible  in  the  spiritual  world. 

It  was  a forced,  unnatural  union,  commanded 
by  law.  The  parties  might  have  no  spiritual 
affinity  or  attraction,  indeed  might  hate  and 
loathe  each  other ; and  still  they  were  obliged 
to  submit  to  the  usages  of  the  nation.  It  was 
purely  external. 

It  was  a marriage  involving  polygamy  ; for 
although  a man  might  have  a congenial  wife 
of  his  own,  he  was  compelled  to  take  his  de- 
ceased brother’s  wife  also  to  his  arms. 

It  was  a marriage  so  often  repeated  as  to 
destroy  every  vestige  of  true  conjugial  love  in 
the  womanl}^  part  of  our  nature,  and  to  bestial- 
ize  the  affections  to  the  lowest  degree. 

This  marriage,  propounded  by  persons  who 
denied  the  life  after  death  and  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  Scriptures,  was  plainly  destitute 
of  every  element  of  spirituality. 


1 12  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

This  marriage,  wholly  sensual  and  external, 
a mere  civil  or  legal  alliance  with  no  interior 
vitality,  a marriage  which  might  be  indefinitely 
repeated,  which  might  be  coincident  with  an- 
other already  existing ; this  marriage,  the 
proper  external  type  of  the  union  of  the  evil 
and  the  false,  and  therefore  childless  and  fruit- 
less ; this  revolting  marriage  was  presented  to 
our  Lord  by  the  Sadducees,  who  did  not  revolt 
at  it,  but  regarded  it  complacently  from  their 
sensual  stand-point  as  a fair  type  of  the  union 
of  the  sexes  ; and  the  question  was  propounded  : 
“In  the  resurrection  whose  wife  shall  she  be?” 

If  the  tribute-money  which  Jesus  declared 
should  be  rendered  unto  Csesar,  bore  “the 
image  and  superscription”  of  Ccesar,  whose 
“ image  and  superscription”  is  stamped  upon 
the  face  of  this  Sadducean  marriage  ? To 
whom  shall  it  be  assigned  ? Is  the  seal  of 
heaven  upon  it  ? Is  its  existence  possible 
among  angels? 

Our  Lord  replies  : 

“The  children  of  this  world  marry  and  are 
given  in  marriage  ; 

“ But  they  who  shall  be  accounted  worthy  to 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  113 

attain  that  world  and  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead,  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage.” 

And  his  meaning  clearly  is  this  : 

Carnal  and  sensual  men,  “ children  of  this 
world,”  have  marriage  unions  upon  a merely 
external  or  legal  basis,  destitute  of  spiritual 
life ; a kind  of  union  which  does  not  and  can- 
not exist  in  the  spiritual  world,  where  angels 
who  have  been  raised  from  spiritual  death  or 
have  attained  unto  the  resurrection,  are  united 
in  a different  manner,  incomprehensible  to  the 
present  generation  of  men. 

“ They  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in  heaven.” 
He  does  not  tell  them  who  the  angels  are.  He 
does  not  unfold  the  laws  of  their  being  or  the 
state  of  their  life,  the  relation  which  they  hold 
to  each  other,  nor  the  outward  social  and  insti- 
tutional forms  which  their  spiritual  affections 
necessitate.  These  things  were  carefully  with- 
held from  that  sensuous  and  incapable  age. 
When  we  understand  how  it  is  with  the  “ aneels 
of  God,”  we  shall  undei'stand  the  mystery  of 
marriage. 

The  concealments  of  Divine  Providence  are 
as  wonderful  and  as  merciful  as  its  revelations. 


r 14  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

The  Sadducees  represented  the  whole  world  at 
that  time  on  the  question  of  marriage.  If  the 
Lord  had  attempted  to  explain  to  them  the  dif- 
ference between  the  marriage  of  angels  and  the 
marriage  of  the  “children  of  this  world;”  if 
He  had  given  them  the  idea  that  there  was 
any  marriage  at  all  in  heaven ; they  would  not 
have  grasped  his  idea,  but  would  have  cor- 
rupted and  falsified  it  with  their  own.  They 
would  have  imagined  that  angels  have  sexual 
passions  like  ourselves,  are  attracted  and  ex- 
cited by  physical  grace  and  beauty,  and  con- 
tract alliances  very  much  as  we  do  on  earth  ; all 
of  which  would  have  been  totally  false.  Such 
misconceptions  might  have  been  of  incalculable 
injury  to  the  infant  Church.  It  was  far  better 
to  leave  them  in  darkness  and  error,-  than  to 
give  them  a spiritual  truth  which  they  could 
not  understand,  and  which  the}-  would  have 
falsified  and  defiled  by  sensuous  interpretations. 

Let  us  notice  how  subtly  and  beautifully  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead  is  connected  with 
our  spiritual  idea  of  marriage.  Our  Lord 
always  means  spiritual  things  when  he  seems 
to  speak  only  of  natural  things.  He  means 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  115 

spiritual  resurrection.  All  men  undergo  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead — but  “ the  resurrec- 
tion of  life”  and  “ the  resurrection  of  damna- 
tion” are  opposites.  The  resurrection  of  life  is 
the  putting  away  of  all  earthly  and  sensual 
modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  and  the  recep- 
tion of  spiritual  and  heavenly  life  instead.  The 
poet  understood  it  when  he  wrote  : 

“That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things.” 

It  is  this  resurrection  by  which  we  cease  to 
be  “ the  children  of  this  world,”  and  become 
“ equal  to  the  angels.”  It  is  this  resurrection 
which  delivers  us  from  the  bondage  of  the  evil 
or  infernal  marriage,  the  union  of  wicked  lusts 
and  false  persuasions,  so  that  we  rise  above  it 
and  leave  it  beneath  us  for  ever,  and  become 
capable  of  the  heavenly  or  angelic  marriage. 

Observe  also  that  as  this  spiritual  resurrection 
is  quietly  going  on  all  the  while  we  are  dying 
to  our  earthly  selves,  even  during  our  life  in 
this  world,  so  in  the  same  degree  is  the  heavenly 
marriage  being  consummated  in  the  interiors  of 
our  spirits.  It  is  thus  that  resurrection,  mar- 


ii6  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter, 

riage,  regeneration  and  heaven  are  spiritually 
identical.  In  one  sense,  therefore,  the  bare  letter 
is  true,  that  there  are  no  marryings  in  heaven  : 
for  the  essentials  of  marriage,  the  union  of  the 
good  and  the  true  in  the  soul,  the  germs  of 
regeneration,  must  be  acquired  upon  earth  to 
be  unfolded  into  beautiful  and  eternal  outward 
form  in  the  heavens. 

Heaven  is  spiritual  marriage,  and  no  one  can 
be.  admitted  into  heaven  until  interiorly  pre- 
pared for  that  marriage.  The  outward  nuptials 
in  heaven,  transcendently  beautiful  as  they  are, 
are  only  the  sign  and  seal,  the  ratification,  the 
ceremonial  outbirth,  of  what  has  already  taken 
place,  unconsciously  perhaps,  in  the  depths  of 
two  blessed  and  immortal  spirits.  On  earth 
very  frequently  the  bodies  only  are  married,  or 
the  bodies  first  and  the  souls  afterward.  In 
heaven  the  souls  are  manned  first,  on  an  eternal 
basis,  and  the  bodies  afterward ; so  that  hea- 
venly purity,  order,  and  beauty  may  descend 
from  the  interior  life  into  the  outer  or  bodily 
life,  as  the  sunlight  enters  a cloud  and  colors 
every  atom  of  its  form  with  its  own  ethereal  and 
resplendent  glory  ! 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  1 1 7 

The  reader  may  now  see  that  the  true  mean- 
ing of  this  often-quoted  text  does  not  lie  upon 
the  surface  ; that  a great  deal  more  is  meant 
than  the  sensuous  understanding  apprehends ; 
and  that,  rationally  interpreted,  our  Lord’s 
words  do  not  teach  that  there  are  no  mar- 
riages in  heaven.  They  really  teach  this : that 
men  who  have  attained  the  angelic  state  by 
dying  to  themselves  and  the  world  through 
obedience  to  God,  have  put  off  or  renounced 
those  evil  passions  and  false  principles  whose 
union  is  the  infernal  or  the  merely  sensual  mar- 
riage ; and  have  thereby  become  so  different 
from  “ the  children  of  this  world,”  so  elevated 
above  them,  that  the  same  life,  fortune,  fate, 
and  social  forms  can  no  longer  be  predicated  of 
both  parties.  The  word  “ marriage,”  as  appli- 
cable to  one,  becomes  wholly  inapplicable  to 
the  other.  The  angels  from  their  spiritual 
stand-point,  can  say  with  equal  truth  of  “the 
children  of  this  world,”  they  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage. 

The  Lord’s  words  also  leave  the  entire  ques- 
tion of  angelic  forms,  affections,  and  unions  un- 
touched and  their  phenomena  unrevealed.  If  it 


ii8  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

be  his  will  to  unfold  the  mysteries  of  angelic 
life,  including  those  of  marriage,  to  a more 
receptive  age,  that  revelation  must  be  judged 
of  by  its  own  intrinsic  character ; and  the 
merely  literal  sense  of  this  passage,  which  has 
truly  killed  its  spirit  or  real  meaning,  cannot 
be  brought  against  it  as  a legitimate  objection. 

Why,  then,  says  the  reader,  have  so  many 
wise  and  good  men  and  women  been  permitted 
for  so  many  centuries  to  entertain  such  erro- 
neous ideas  about  heaven  and  angels,  and 
about  the  true  nature  and  final  social  destiny 
of  their  own  souls?  Because  truth  cannot  be 
clearly  revealed  to  imperfect  men  and  to  an  in- 
fant Church.  There  is  indeed  a grand,  orderly, 
progressive  evolution  and  revelation  of  divine 
truth.  The  Church  like  the  race  and  the  indi- 
vidual has  its  infancy  and  its  childhood ; when 
it  is  fed  upon  the  milk  and  not  the  meat  of  the 
Word  ; when  it  apprehends  all  things  sensuously 
and  not  intelligent!}^ ; when  it  is  taught  by  dic- 
tations and  not  by  such  philosophical  explana- 
tions as  are  afterward  required.  The  Divine 
Word  also,  like  the  created  and  unw’ritten  word 
of  nature,  is  a vast  system  of  symbols  or  hiero- 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  • 119 

glyphics ; some  of  which  are  perfectly  plain  or 
easily  deciphered,  especially  those  essential  to 
moral  and  spiritual  life ; while  others  are  very 
obscure  and  difficult,  demanding  for  their  solu- 
tion a.  high  degree  of  scientific  and  rational 
culture. 

Man  at  first  believes  what  his  senses  teach 
him ; anjd  he  learns  very  slowly  to  distrust  the 
evidence  of  those  most  fallacious  guides.  For 
how  many  ages  did  men  believe  that  the  sun 
moved  round  the  earth,  rising  and  setting  as  it 
seems  to  do  ! And  blinded  by  theological  preju- 
dice, how  absurdly  did  they  resist  the  scientific 
correction  of  the  false  report  of  their  senses  ! 
Nature  has  already  revealed  to  our  modern 
analysis,  things  which  would  have  been  more 
wonderful  to  our  ancestors  than  all  their  fables 
and  myths  and  fairy-tales  seem  to  us.  The 
sensuous  interpretation  of  nature  ceases  with 
the  advent  of  true  science  and  philosophy. 
And  since  the  Word  of  God  and  his  creation 
are  analogous,  producing  similar  effects  upon 
the  human  mind,  we  see  that  the  Church  has 
had  its  period  of  literal  or  sensuous  interpreta- 
tion, to  which  it  still  clings  with  a childish 


120  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

tenacity,  ignoring  the  happy  dawn  of  a truly 
rational  spirit,  which  will  compel  it  to  put  away 
childish  things. 

Marriage  in  heaven  is  denied  solely  in  the 
spirit  and  on  the  strength  of  the  letter.  An- 
other and  instructive  example  of  false  doctrine 
arising  from  sensuous  or  literal  interpretation,  is 
the  confident  belief  of  the  apostles  and  early 
Christians  that  the  second  advent  of  the  Lord 
was  close  at  hand.  Jesus  had  declared  that 
that  generation  should  not  pass  awa}^  before 
his  description  of  the  last  judgment  would  be 
fulfilled.  He  had  also  permitted  them  to  infer 
that  the  Apostle  John  should  tarry  until  his 
second  coming.  And  the  angel  commands  the 
Seer  of  Patmos  not  to  seal  up  the  pi'ophecy  of 
the  book,  with  the  ominous  declaration,  “ for 
the  time  is  at  hand.”  The  spiritual  and  real 
signification  of  all  these  things  was  not  under- 
stood. False  doctrines  based  on  the  apparent 
truth  of  the  letter  spread  through  all  the 
churches ; and  every  century  since  the  time  of 
Christ,  has  had  its  grand  agitation  on  the  Sec- 
ond Advent,  and  the  same  cruel  disappointment, 
to  the  delight  of  scoffing  infidels. 

O O 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  I3i 

If  the  articles  of  the  present  Christian  faith 
are  critically  examined,  it  will  be  seen  that  this 
principle  of  sensuous  or  literal  interpretation 
has  tainted  the  whole  body  of  religious  doctrine, 
so  that  not  one  stone  of  the  temple  of  truth  is 
left  upon  another  in  the  relations  of  spiritual 
order  and  beauty  they  were  designed  by  the 
great  Architect  to  occupy.  The  history  of  the 
Church  is  a history  of  the  struggles  between 
the  unyielding  spirit  of  Literalism  and  the 
growing  and  expanding  spirit  of  Rationalism, 
discovering  the  untenableness  of  the  letter,  and 
attempting  to  spiritualize  it  by  its  own  unaided 
imagination.  It  is  evident  to  thinking  men  that 
the  Church  must  outgrow  the  limitations  of  the 
letter,  or  the  human  mind  will  outgrow  the 
Church.  It  must  spiritualize  with  Swedenborg, 
or  it  will  inevitably  rationalize  with  Strauss  and 
Renan. 

The  first  stage  of  the  life  of  the  Church  is 
like  that  of  the  child ; and  the  first  duty,  to 
learn  the  Father’s  will  and  do  it  without  ques- 
tioning his  authority  or  prying  into  the  uses  and 
philosophy  of  his  system  of  government.  He 

is  taught  by  dictation  on  the  plane  of  the  intel- 
L 


122 


The  Sexes ^ lle^'e  and  Ilereayter. 

lect,  and  led  by  love  on  the  higher  plane  of  the 
affections.  It  he  attempts  to  reason,  his  powers 
are  inadequate,  his  data  insufficient,  and  his 
conclusions  necessaril}"  fallacious.  In  the  after- 
stages of  his  development,  he  is  not  only  per- 
mitted but  invited  to  cultivate  and  use  his  own 
powers  of  observation  and  analysis.  With  ex- 
panded faculties,  new  data,  new  liberty  of 
thought  and  action,  he  penetrates  mj-steries 
before  inscrutable.  He  then  corrects,  in  the- 
ology as  well  as  in  science,  the  erroneous  im- 
pressions of  his  senses,  and  by  the  opening  of 
his  spiritual  perceptions  he  participates  with  the 
angels  in  the  knowledge  of  genuine  Truth. 

“ I have  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye 
cannot  bear  them  now,”  said  Jesus  to  his  disci- 
ples ; and  although  he  has  made  gloidous  addi- 
tions to  the  store  of  truths  then  given,  the  words 
are  still  true  and  will  forever  remain  so.  The 
truths  revealed  by  each  New  Dispensation, 
however  great,  are  few  and  small  in  compari- 
son with  those  which  must  forever  remain  con- 
cealed in  the  bosom  of  God.  One  age  or 
Church  is  ready  to  hear  what  a preceding  one 
could  not  receive.  Spiritually  speaking,  Swe- 


What  our  Lord  Says  About  it.  12^ 

denborg’s  doctrines  are  nothing  new,  but  only 
the  genuine  growth  and  outflowering  of  the  old, 
eternal  truths  of  the  spiritual  universe.  Through 
him  the  Lord  has  given  us  many,  many  things 
which  the  Apostolic  Church  could  not  bear. 
One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  wonderful  of 
these  divine  gifts,  is  a true  doctrine  of  sex, 
love,  and  marriage,  the  great  keystone  of  the 
spiritual  arch.  Under  the  narrowing  influence 
of  literalism,  the  Christian  world  may  for  a while 
regard  it  with  incredulity  or  aversion,  as  it  did 
the  astronomy  of  Galileo  and  the  discoveries  of 
geology  ; but  the  spirit  of  truth,  which  conquers 
and  reconciles  and  unites  all  things,  will  finally 
overcome  the  prejudices  and  dissipate  the  dark- 
ness of  the  human  mind. 

All  things,  then,  are  bi-sexual ; God  ; Man  ; 
Nature  ; the  Word  ; the  Church.  Nothing  ex- 
ists but  by  the  reciprocal  attraction  and  inspi- 
ration of  two  coequal  forces  or  powers.  Male 
and  female  or  sex,  attraction  or  love,  equi- 
librium or  marriage,  is  the  key  to  all  science, 
spiritual  and  natural.  Our  forms,  our  loves,  our 
unions,  are  imperishable.  Nature  affirms  it ; 
the  spirit  reveals  it ; our  Lord  does  not  deny  it. 


134  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

That  tender,  holy,  heavenly  conjunction  of  two 
hearts  into  one,  which  is  effigied  in  the  mar- 
liage  of  the  will  and  understanding  of  the  re- 
generate soul,  and  which  is  itself  a miniature 
of  that  infinite  marriage  between  the  Lord  and 
his  Church,  is  the  eternal  source  of  our  life  and 
joy.  For  death  is  a shadow ; we  never  cease 
to  live  or  cease  to  love. 

“ Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul, 

And  grow  forever  and  forever.” 


CHAPTER  IV. 


WHA  T SWEDENBORG  SA  ABOUT  IT. 


HEY  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in 
heaven.” 

Sublime,  mysterious  words  ! — the  em- 
bodiment of  all  we  can  imagine  of  innocence, 
beauty,  peace  and  love ; suggesting  a realm  of 
unimaginable  glory  and  wonder ; farther  off,  it 
seems  to  us,  than  Orion  or  the  Pleiades  ; more 
inaccessible  than  the  golden  islands  and  seas 
of  a summer  sunset ! 

And  yet — 

x\re  we  never  to  know  how  it  is  with  the 
angels?  Does  the  impassable  gulf  which  sepa- 
rates heaven  from  hell,  stretch  its  awful  abysses 
also  between  heaven  and  earth?  Then  how  did 
Moses  and  Ezekiel  and  John  and  Paul  see  into 
heaven?  And  what  does  our  Lord  mean  by 
those  strange  and  hope-inspiring  words? — 

“ Hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  open.” 

L » 


125 


126  The  Sexes',  Here  and  Hereafter. 

More  than  a century  ago  a Swedish  philoso- 
pher of  great  learning,  genius  and  virtue,  pro- 
fessed to  have  the  sight  of  his  spirit  opened, 
whereby  he  was  intromitted  into  the  spiritual 
world.  He  remained  in  this  state  for  more  than 
a quarter  of  a century,  during  which  he  studied 
the  laws  and  phenomena  of  that  world,  and 
unfolded  a complete  system  of  psychology  and 
theology,  which  he  declared  to  be  revelations 
from  heaven  for  the  use  of  a New  Church  signi- 
fied by  the  New  Jerusalem  in  the  Apocal3^pse. 
A strange  man  he  was,  and  the  author  of 
strange  books ; a psychological  problem  as  yet 
unsolved.  He  made  no  proselj^tes,  founded  no 
Church,  sought  no  distinction ; but  dropped  his 
seed  into  the  field  of  theological  literature,  as 
quietly  and  patientl}'^  and  with  a faith  as  un- 
wavering as  a man  who  plants  an  acorn  and 
sees  with  the  mind’s  e^m  his  grandchildren 
playing  in  the  shadow  of  the  mighty  oak. 

“A  revelation  from  heaven!”  exclaims  the 
incredulous  child  of  modern  philosophy — as  if 
all  things  were  not  revelations  from  heaven  ! 

Heaven?  The  flowers  reflect  it;  the  birds 
sing  of  it ; the  ocean  voices  it ; the  stars  point 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  127 

to  it ; the  winds  breathe  it ; the  sun  blazons  it , 
all  nature  mirrors  it ! Our  human  souls  are 
full  of  it ; our  thoughts  flow  from  it ; our  loves 
are  born  of  it ; our  music,  architecture,  poetry, 
art,  science  and  all,  are  the  falling  shadows  of 
its  transcendent  glory  ! 

Revelations  or  communications  from  the  spir- 
itual to  the  natural  sphere,  have  been  given  in 
all  ages  and  to  all  peoples  and  tongues,  vary- 
ing in  their  form,  extent,  and  character  accord- 
ing to  the  nature,  circumstances,  and  receptivity 
of  those  to  whom  they  were  sent. 

The  highest  revelation  was  “the  voice  of  the 
Lord  God  walking  in  the  garden.”  Then  came 
special  visitations  and  oral  instruction  by  angels. 
Then  the  inspiration  of  a written  Word  contain- 
ing Divine  Wisdom  in  its  unseen  but  infinite 
depths.  Sometimes  revelations  have  been  made 
by  miracles,  sometimes  by  dreams,  and  some- 
times by  open  vision  into  heaven  or  the  world 
of  spirits. 

A new  Church  and  a new  revelation  come, 
not  because  the  preceding  were  false  or  had 
failed  of  their  mission,  but  because  new,  higher, 
larger,  better  conceptions  of  truth  have  become 


128  7he  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

possible  and  necessary  by  the  gradual  and 
orderly  unfolding  of  the  human  mind.  Our 
spiritual  life  always  depends  upon  our  com- 
munication with  heaven ; and  the  form  of  the 
revelation  depends  upon  and  varies  with  our 
mental  states.  And  all  revelations,  however 
diversified  in  external  form,  have  the  same  in- 
terior source  and  life.  There  is  no  antagonism 
between  what  Jehovah  taught  in  the  garden 
and  what  Moses  received  on  the  mount.  The 
ray  of  divine  light  is  continuous  through  Psalm- 
ist and  Evangelist,  through  Prophet  and  Apos- 
tle. And  Swedenborg  in  his  highest  flight, 
only  interprets  the  old  song  which  Moses  and 
John,  “like  poets  hidden  in  the  light  of  thought,” 
have  always  been  singing,  unheard  by  the 
world. 

Revelations  are  authenticated,  not  by  mira- 
cles, nor  by  the  authority  of  great  names,  nor 
by  external  evidence  of  any  kind,  but  solely 
by  the  luminous  and  beneficent  truths  the}'  con- 
vey to  man.  Revelation  reaches  the  first  or 
lowest  stage  of  human  thought  and  life  by 
miraculous  impression  upon  the  senses : it 
reaches  a higher  and  nobler  stage  by  rational 


What  Swedenborg  Says  Abotd  it.  129 

illumination  of  the  understanding.  Yet  no  rev- 
elation is  ever  recognized  as  such  by  those 
who  look  from  the  old  standpoints,  and  who 
have  not  interiorly  outlived  and  outgrown  the 
peculiar  spirit  and  forms  of  the  preceding  dis- 
pensation. 

A rational  age  does  not  ask  for  miracles,  but 
for  light.  Swedenborg’s  system  must  stand, 
not  upon  his  mere  dicta,  but  on  its  own  intrinsic 
merits.  Is  it  rational,  satisfjdng  the  under- 
standing? Is  it  beautiful,  satisfying  the  aesthetic 
longings  of  the  soul?  Is  it  consistent  with  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  satisfying  our  ineradicable 
loyalty  to  Revealed  Truth?  It  is  only  by  this 
method  that  we  can  assure  ourselves  whether 
this  new  doctrine  is  the  genuine  light  of  heaven, 
or  some  mysterious  flash  of  magnetic  fire  from 
the  northern  skies. 

Whatever  may  be  the  verdict  of  posterity, 
there  is  unquestionably  an  increasing  and  legit- 
imate curiosity  among  intelligent  people  to 
know  what  Swedenborg  said  about  the  spiritual 
world.  We  will  gratify  our  readers  and  il- 
lustrate our  subject  by  some  quotations  from 

this  wniter,  who,  entirely  aside  from  his  theo- 
9 


130  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

logical  pretensions,  has  made  some  of  the 
profoundest  observations  on  the  nature  of  the 
human  soul,  the  origin  of  love  and  the  philoso- 
phy of  marriage.  If  he  did  not  get  his  singu- 
larly beautiful  doctrines  from  a spiritual  source, 
he  is  at  least  the  founder  of  a system  of  psy- 
chology which  is  more  in  harmony  with  the 
rich  discoveries  of  modern  times  in  all  depart- 
ments of  science,  than  any  of  the  systems  which 
have  engaged  the  attention  or  secured  the  faith 
of  men. 

Communication  with  the  spiritual  world  is 
commonly  regarded  as  impossible  or  improb- 
able, because  men  are  in  the  densest  ignorance 
of  the  true  nature  of  spirit,  and  of  the  connec- 
tion between  heaven  and  earth.  They  cannot 
imagine  how  a man  living  on  earth  can  see  into 
heaven ; and  yet  if  that  be  impossible,  the 
Bible  is  false  and  revelation  a dream.  Swe- 
denborg explains  how  this  seemingly  miracu- 
lous insight  into  the  spiritual  world  is  effected. 
He  says : 

“Angels  cannot  be  seen  by  man  with  the 
eyes  of  his  body,  but  only  with  the  ej’es  of  his 
spirit  (or  spiritual  body)  which  is  within  him. 


What  Swedenborg'  Says  About  it.  131 

This  spiritual  body  communicates  with  the  spir- 
itual world,  while  all  parts  of  the  natural  body 
are  in  the  natural  world.  Like  sees  like,  be- 
cause from  a like  ground.  Objects  which  are 
above  the  sphere  of  nature,  as  all  those  of  the 
spiritual  world  are,  may  hbw'ever  be  seen  by 
man  when  he  is  withdrawn  from  the  sight  of  his 
body,  and  that  of  his  spirit  is  opened.  This  is 
done  in  an  instant  when  it  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
Lord  that  the  things  of  the  spiritual  world  shall 
be  seen  by  man  : nor  is  he  at  all  aware  at  the 
time  that  he  does  not  behold  them  with  his 
bodily  eyes.” 

“ It  was  in  this  way  that  angels  were  seen 
by  Abraham,  Lot,  Manoah  and  the  prophets. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Lord  was  seen  by 
the  disciples  after  his  resurrection  ; and  it  was 
in  the  same  way  also  that  angels  have  been 
seen  by  me. 

“As  the  prophets  enjoyed  this  mode  of 
vision,  they  were  called  Seers,  or  the  7nen 
whose  eyes  were  oj^en;  and  to  cause  them  to 
see  in  this  way  was  called  opening  their  eyes. 
This  was  done  to  Elisha’s  servant,  of  whom  we 
read  : 


132  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

“ ‘And  Elisha  prayed  and  said  : Jehovah  ! I 
pray  thee,  open  his  eyes  that  he  may  see. 

“ ‘And  Jehovah  opened  the  eyes  of  the  young 
man,  and  he  saw ; and  behold ! the  mountain 
was  full  of  horses  and  chariots  of  fire  round 
about  Elisha.’  ” 

The  process  by  which  Swedenborg  saw 
spirits  and  angels  being  thus  rationally  ex- 
plained, we  may  credit  his  assurance  that  all 
spirits  are  in  the  perfect  human  form.  He  says, 
moreover,  that  they  are  male  and  female ; that 
they  ai‘e  animated  by  loves,  feelings,  and  senti- 
ments similar  to  those  which  people  on  earth 
experience.  Societies  are  arranged  in  that 
world,  not  geographically,  nor  b}'  any  external 
law,  but  by  the  great  internal  law  of  spiritual 
affinity.  Similar  or  sympathetic  men  and  wo- 
men are  drawn  together.  The  male  and  female 
souls  most  congenial,  most  sympathetic,  are 
united  in  an  eternal  union,  which  is  the  mar- 
riage of  heaven. 

His  picture  of  the  heavenly  societies  is  sur- 
passingly beautiful.  The  perfect  order,  peace, 
beauty,  love,  which  there  reign  supreme,  would 
realize  our  grandest  and  holiest  ideal  of  the 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  133 

final  home  and  rest  of  the  saints.  We  are  at 
first  surprised  and  bewildered,  but  finally  con- 
vinced and  delighted,  as  he  unfolds  to  us  the 
wonderful  fact,  that  the  secret  principle  and 
key  to  all  this  heavenly  organization  is  the 
conjugial  love.  Sex  belongs  to  the  soul  as 
well  as  to  the  body : and,  as  our  souls  are  im- 
mortal, sex,  with  all  its  aspirations,  is  eternal. 
Regenerate  souls  united  forever  in  conjugial 
love,  constitute  the  Lord’s  church  or  kingdom 
in  heaven. 

Of  this  conjugial  love,  the  connecting  bond 
of  angelic  hearts  and  the  life  of  the  heavenly 
home,  Swedenborg  makes  the  following  gen- 
eral statements,  which  may  serve  to  show  how 
important  a place  it  occupies  in  the  psychology 
and  theology  of  the  New  Church : 

“ There  is  a love  truly  conjugial,  which  at 
this  day  is  so  rare  that  its  quality  and  almost 
its  existence  are  unknown. 

“ It  originates  in  the  marriage  of  goodness 
and  truth  from  the  Lord  in  the  regenerate  souls 
of  man  and  woman,  and  corresponds  to  the 
spiritual  marriage  of  the  Lord  with  his  church. 

“ From  its  origin  and  coiTespondence,  this 
M 


134  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereayter. 


conjugial  love  is  celestial,  spiritual,  holy,  pure, 
and  clean  above  every  other  love  imparted  by 
the  Lord  to  the  angels  in  heaven  and  to  the 
men  of  the  church. 

“ It  is  the  fundamental  love  of  all  celestial  and 
spiritual  loves,  and  thence  of  all  natural  loves  ; 
and  into  it  are  gathered  all  the  delights  and  joys 
of  the  human  soul. 

“ It  belongs  to  the  internal  or  spiritual  man  ; 
and  none  come  into  this  love,  or  can  remain  in 
it,  but  those  who  love  the  Lord  and  obey  his 
commandments.” 

How  the  natural  love  of  the  sex,  common  to 
man  and  animals,  is  changed  into  this  pure, 
holy,  and  perfect  love,  is  also  explained  in  his 
writings  ; from  which  we  may  learn  that  regen- 
eration, resurrection,  marriage,  and  heaven,  are 
in  their  spiritual  sense  S3'non3^mous  terms.  We 
are  thus  led  into  an  entireL  new  sphere  of  ps3'- 
chological  and  theological  truth. 

We  are  aware  with  what  incredulitv'  and  dis- 
trust these  revelations  will  be  received.  Man 
is  slow  to  discover  the  truth,  and  even  slower 
to  recognize  it  after  it  has  been  discovered. 
We  plead  for  free  thought,  charit3s  and  liberal 


What  Swedenborg  Says  Aboitt  it.  135 

construction.  Aside  from  its  psychological  and 
theological  issues,  this  doctrine  of  love  and 
marriage  in  heaven  has  an  msthetic  value,  sure 
at  last  to  command  the  admiration  of  men.  We 
will  show  the  practical  tendency  of  these  novel 
teachings,  and  satisfy  a legitimate  curiosity,  by 
drawing  from  Swedenborg  some  descriptive 
illustrations  of  the  highest  state  of  marriage 
and  conjugial  love  in  heaven  ; for  he  has  a 
charming  method  of  making  his  philosophical 
principles  objective  and  intelligible  by  narrating 
scenes  and  conversations  with  spirits  and  an- 
gels, which  impress  them  on  the  imagination 
and  memory.  The  scene  of  the  following 
narration  is  in  the  world  of  spirits,  a realm 
between  heaven  and  earth,  or  the  region  or 
state  which  every  one  enters  immediately  after 
death  : 

“On  a time  when  I was  meditating  on  con- 
jugial love,  lo  ! there  appeared  at  a distance 
two  naked  infants  with  baskets  in  their  hands 
and  turtle-doves  flying  around  them.  On  a 
nearer  view,  they  seemed  as  if  they  were 
naked,  but  beautifully  ornamented  with  gar- 
lands. Chaplets  of  flowers  decorated  their 


136  The  Sexes;  Mere  and  Hereafter 

heads,  and  wreaths  of  lilies  and  roses,  hang- 
ing obliquely  from  the  shoulders  to  the  loins, 
adorned  their  bosoms.  Round  about  both  of 
them  there  was,  as  it  were,  a common  band 
woven  of  small  leaves  interspersed  with  olives. 
But  when  they  came  nearer  they  did  not  appear 
as  infants  or  naked,  but  as  two  persons  in  the 
prime  of  life,  wearing  cloaks  and  tunics  of 
shining  silk  embroidered  with  the  most  beauti- 
ful flowers.  When  they  came  near  me,  there 
breathed  forth  from  heaven  through  them  a 
vernal  warrnth  attended  with  an  odoriferous 
fragrance,  such  as  arises  from  gardens  and 
fields  in  the  time  of  spring. 

“They  were  two  married  partners  from 
heaven,  and  they  saluted  me ; and  because  I 
was  musing  upon  what  I had  seen,  they,  in- 
quired, ‘What  did  you  see?’  When  I told 
them  that  at  first  they  appeared  to  me  as  naked 
infants,  afterward  as  infants  adorned  with  grar- 
lands,  and  lastly  as  grown-up  persons  in  em- 
broidered garments,  they  smiled  pleasantly  and 
said  : 

“ In  the  way  we  did  not  seem  to  ourselves  as 
infants,  or  naked,  or  adorned  with  garlands,  but 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  137 

constantly  in  the  same  appearance  which  we 
now  have.” 

They  then  explain  to  Swedenborg  how  the 
beautiful  picture  first  presented,  made  up  of 
naked  infants  and  doves  and  uniting  wreaths 
of  flowers,  was  emblematical  of  the  innocence, 
sweetness,  peace,  purity,  and  exquisite  delights 
of  their  conjugial  love.  In  the  spiritual  world 
every  one’s  sphere  precedes  him,  and  tells  in 
charming  symbolic  statuary  or  painting  the 
character  and  peculiarities  of  the  one  who  ap- 
proaches him.  There  as  here,  “distance  lends 
enchantment  to  the  view.”  In  the  same  manner 
also  every  beautiful  and  useful  object  upon 
earth,  however  ignorant  we  may  be  of  it,  repre- 
sents the  sphei'e  or  outflowing  of  some  spiritual 
truth  or  some  heavenly  affection. 

They  also  explain  to  him  the  cause  of  the 
vernal  glow  and  the  exquisite  fragrance  of  fields 
and  gardens  which  surround  them.  They  tell 
him  it  comes  from  the  constant  spiritual  spring 
in  which  they  live ; for  love  and  wisdom,  which 
are  spiritual  heat  and  light,  are  united  in  their 
minds  in  equal  proportions.  They  assure  him 
also  that  it  is  the  same  conjugial  sphere  de- 

M * 


138  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

scending  from  heaven  to  earth,  which  causes 
the  germination  of  leaf  and  blossom  and  the 
connubial  associations  of  birds  and  animals,  as 
well  as  the  tender  gushes  of  sentimental  pas- 
sion in  the  hearts  of  human  beings. 

*‘In  the  spring  a fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin’s 
breast; 

In  the  spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another 
crest ; 

In  the  spring  a livelier  iris  changes  on  the  burnished 
dove ; 

In  the  spring  a young  man’s  fancy  lightly  turns  to 
thoughts  of  love.” 

“.He  gave  me  his  right  hand,”  continues 
Swedenborg,  “ and  conducted  me  to  houses 
inhabited  by  married  partners  in  a like  prime 
of  life  with  himself  and  his  partner ; and  he 
said  : 

“ These  wives  who  now  seem  like  3'oung 
virgins,  were  in  your  world  infirm  old  women  ; 
and  their  husbands  who  now  seem  in  the  spring 
of  youth,  were  in  the  world  decrepid  old  men. 
They  have  all  been  restored  b}’  the  Lord  to  the 
prime  of  life,  because  they  mutually  loved  each 
other,  and  from  religious  principles  shunned 
adulteries  as  enormous  sins.” 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  139 

He  gives  the  following  beautiful  description 
of  an  angelic  pair  from  the  third  or  celestial 
heaven, — that  heaven  which  Paul  visited,  but 
whose  wonders  he  was  not  permitted  to  reveal : 

“ One  morning  I was  looking  upward  into 
heaven  (from  the  world  of  spirits)  and  saw 
over  me  three  expanses  one  above  another.  I 
saw  that  the  first  expanse  which  was  nearest, 
opened ; and  presently  the  second  which  was 
above  it ; and  lastly  the  third  which  was  highest. 
I then  perceived  that  above  the  first  expanse 
were  the  angels  of  the  first  heaven  ; above  the 
second  expanse  were  the  angels  who  compose 
the  second  heaven ; and  above  the  third  ex- 
panse were  the  angels  who  compose  the  third 
or  highest  heaven. 

“I  wondered  at  first  what  all  this  meant; 
and  presently  I heard  from  heaven  a voice  as 
of  a trumpet,  saying, 

- “ ‘We  perceive  that  you  have  been  meditat- 
ing on  Conjugial  Love  : and  we  are  aware  that 
no  one  on  earth  knows  what  conjugial  love  in 
its  origin  and  essence  is.  Yet  it  is  of  import- 
ance that  it  should  be  known.  It  has  therefore 
pleased  the  Lord  to  open  the  heavens  to  you, 


140  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

in  order  that  illustrating  light  may  flow  into  the 
interiors  of  your  mind.  Our  delights  in  the 
third  heaven  are  principally  derived  from  con- 
jugial  love.  In  consequence,  therefore,  of  leave 
granted  us,  we  will  send  down  to  you  a conju- 
gial  pair  for  your  inspection  and  observation.’ 

“There  instantly  appeared  a chariot  descend- 
ing from  the  highest  or  third  heaven,  in  which 
I saw  at  first  one  angel ; but  as  it  came  nearer 
I perceived  that  it  contained  two.  (Angelic 
married  pairs  always  appear  at  a distance  as 
one  pei'son  or  angel.)  The  chariot  afar  off 
glittered  before  my  eyes  like  a diamond,  and 
to  it  were  harnessed  two  young  horses  as  white 
as  snow.  Those  who  sat  in  the  chariot  held  in 
their  hands  two  turtle-doves,  and  they  called 
out  to  me,  saying  : 

“ ‘Do  you  wish  us  to  come  nearer  to  3'ou  ? 
If  so,  take  heed  lest  the  flaming  radiance  of 
the  heaven  from  which  we  have  descended 
penetrate  too  interiorly.  It  would  illuminate, 
indeed,  the  ideas  of  your  superior  or  interior 
mind ; but  those  ideas  are  ineffable  and  incom- 
municable in  the  world  in  which  you  dwell. 
Therefore  let  what  you  are  about  to  receive 


What  Sxvedenborg  Says  About  it.  141 

enter  only  your  rational  or  lower  mind,  so  that 
you  can  make  your  fellow-men  understand  it.” 

“ I replied,  I will  observe  your  caution  : come 
nearer.” 

There  is  a great  psychological  truth  hidden 
in  the  above  paragraph.  The  human  mind 
itself  has  three  degrees,  expanses,  or  heavens, 
one  above  another,  the  opening  of  any  one  of 
which  intromits  us  into  the  heaven  of  that  de- 
gree. Swedenborg’s  own  mind  was  opened  to 
the  celestial  degree  on  this  occasion,  and  the  an- 
gels appeared  to  him  to  descend  only  because 
he  ascended.  The  things  in  these  degrees  are 
so  discrete  that  what  is  seen  or  heard  in  one 
may  not  be  understood  or  remembered  when 
the  perceptions  of  the  soul  ascend  or  descend 
into  another  degree.  Paul  could  not  remember 
or  explain  what  he  heard  when  in  the  celestial 
degree,  because  his  natural  degree  was  closed 
at  the  time.  When  he  returned  consciously 
into  that  degree,  the  celestial  was  closed  and 
all  its  glories  had  vanished.  Swedenborg  is 
warned  to  receive  and  retain  in  his  lower  mind 
the  angelic  truths,  so  that  he  could  cominuni- 
cate  them  to  us  who  live  on  that  plane.  He 


142  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

concentrates  his  intellect  upon  the  rational 
meaning  of  what  he  is  about  to  hear ; and 
continues  his  story  : 

“So  they  came  nearer;  and  lo ! it  was  a 
husband  and  wife.  They  said : ‘We  are  a 
conjugial  pair ; we  have  lived  happy  in  heaven 
from  the  earliest  period,  which  ^'ou  call  the 
golden  age ; and  have  continued  all  that  time 
in  the  same  bloom  of  youth  in  which  you  see 
us  now.’ 

“ I viewed  each  of  them  attentively,  because 
I perceived  that  they  represented  conjugial 
love  in  its  life  and  in  its  decorations  ; in  its  life 
by  their  faces,  and  in  its  decorations  by  their 
raiment.  All  angels  are  affections  of  love  in 
the  human  form.  The  ruling  affection  itself 
shines  forth  from  their  faces ; and  from  the 
affection  the  kind  and  quality  of  their  raiment 
is  determined.  Therefore  it  is  said  in  heaven 
that  every  one  is  clothed  by  his  own  affection.” 

Swedenborg  then  minutely  describes  their 
appearance  and  dress,  every  point  in  which 
was,  according  to  the  creative  laws  of  the 
spiritual  world,  symbolical  of  their  own  spirit- 
ual qualities.  He  labors  in  vain  to  do  justice 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  143 

to  beings  so  transcendently  beautiful.  We 
gather,  however,  from  his  description,  that  the 
face  of  the  husband  was  “ one  resplendent 
comeliness,”  and  that  the  beauty  of  the  wife 
was  immeasurably  beyond  the  reach  of  pen  or 
pencil.  He  gives  us  a touch  or  two  worthy  of 
Dante  for  poetic  charm  and  grandeur. 

“I  saw  her  face,  and  I did  not  see  it.  I saw 
it  as  essential  beauty  ; and  I did  not  see  it,  be- 
cause this  beauty  was  indescribable.  In  her 
face  was  a splendor  of  flaming  light,  such  as 
the  angels  in  the  third  heaven  enjoy ; and  this 
light  made  my  sight  dim,  so  that  I was  lost  in 
astonishment.  Observing  this,  she  addressed 
me,  saying,  ‘ What  do  you  see?’ 

“ I replied  : ‘ I see.  nothing  but  conjugial 
love  and  the  form  thereof : but  I see  and  I do 
not  see.’ 

“ Hereupon  she  turned  herself  sideways 
from  her  husband,  and  then  I was  enabled  to 
view  her  more  attentively 

Dante  acquired  strength  to  look  at  the  sun 
by  gazing  on  the  heavenly  face  of  Beatrice. 
The  Dantes  and  Beatrices  of  the  angelic  spheres, 
acquire  strength  to  look  upon  the  Lord  by  gaz- 


144  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

ing  into  each  other’s  faces  : but  then  their  glory 
becomes  blinding  to  earthly  visitants.  They 
can  diminish  the  flood  of  celestial  light  which 
surrounds  them  by  turning  away  from  each 
other,  and  thus  unveil  their  beauty  to  mortal 
eyes. 

Swedenborg  continues  in  a strain  almost  as 
beautiful : 

“ Her  hair  was  arrancred  with  a taste  corre- 
spending  to  her  beauty,  and  in  it  was  inserted 
a diadem  of  flowers.  She  had  a necklace  of 
carbuncles  from  which  hung  a rosary  of  chrj’s- 
olites,  and  she  wore  pearl  bracelets.  Her  robe 
was  scarlet,  and  fastened  in  front  with  a clasp 
of  rubies.  What  surprised  me  in  all  this  was, 
tliat  the  colors  varied  according  to  her  aspect 
in  regard  to  her  husband,  being  sometimes 
more  glittering,  sometimes  less. ' If  she  looked 
toward  him,  they  shone  more  brilliantl}^ : if  she 
turned  sideways,  they  shone  less.” 

A similar  illumination  of  precious  stones  b}'’ 
influx  of  light  or  truth  from  the  Lord,  was  the 
secret  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  or  twelve 
precious  stones  worn  on  the  breastplate  of  the 
Jewish  high-priest.  They  gave  responses  by 


4. 

What  Swedeitborg  Says  About  it.  145 

brilliant  variegations  of  color,  a veritable  lan- 
guage of  light,  as  intelligible  as  the  language 
of  flowers.  Josephus  affirms  that  their  light 
was  perfectly  dazzling  when  Jehovah  promised 
victory  to  the  Jewish  armies.  This  wonderful 
property  of  the  breastplate  has  always  been  a 
great  puzzle  to  the  commentators.  Infidels  and 
naturalists  deny  the  facts : Swedenborg  alone 
explains  them.  The  miracles  of  the  Bible  are 
illustrated  and  confirmed  by  the  simplest  laws 
and  phenomena  of  the  spiritual  life. 

While  these  heavenly  beings  are  conversing 
with  Swedenborg  on  the  mysteries  of  conjugial 
love,  he  makes  a curious  observation  about 
their  unity  or  simultaneousness  of  thought  and 
speech, — a phenomenon  impossible  in  our  na- 
tural state  of  life,  and  one  of  the  results  of  the 
perfect  marriage  union  of  souls. 

“When  the  husband  was  speaking,  he  spoke 
at  the  same  time  as  if  from  his  wife ; and  when 
the  wife  was  speaking,  she  spoke  at  the  same 
time  as  if  from  her  husband.  This  union  of 
expression  came  from  their  perfect  mental  har- 
mony. On  this  occasion,  also,  I detected  the 

tone  of  voice  which  indicated  conjugial  love. 

10  N 


146  The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

It  was  interiorly  simultaneous,  and  it  proceeded 
from  the  delight  of  an  interior  state  of  inno- 
cence  and  peace.” 

Of  this  wonderful  and  perfect  union  of  two 
hearts  and  minds,  which  is  the  key  to  heavenly 
felicity  and  all  its  most  beautiful  outward  accom- 
plishments, our  author  thus  speaks  : 

“In  heavenly  marriage  there  is  no  domina- 
tion exercised  by  one  party  over  the  other ; for 
the  will  of  the  wife  is  also  that  of  the  husband, 
and  the  understanding  of  the  husband  is  also 
that  of  the  wife.  One  loves  to  think  and  to 
will  as  the  other  does ; and  they  do  so  mutually 
and  reciprocally.  The  result  is  their  final  con- 
junction into  one  spiritual  life.  This  conjunc- 
tion is  actual ; for  the  will  of  the  wife  enters 
into  the  understanding  of  the  husband,  and  the 
understanding  of  the  husband  into  the  will  of 
the  wife,  more  especially  when  they  look  each 
other  in  the  face ; for  as  has  been  often  before 
stated,  there  is  an  actual  transference  of  thoughts 
and  affections  in  heaven.” 

How  have  these  glorious  angels,  once  men 
and  women  like  ourselves,  attained  to  this  ex- 
alted state,  so  that  they  think,  feel,  and  act  sim 


What  Swedenborg  Says  Abozit  it.  147 

ultaneously?  that  they  appear  to  others  at  a 
distance  as  one  person?  that  when  one  speaks, 
it  is  seen  and  felt  that  both  speak?  that  they 
have  forms  of  such  transcendent  grace  and 
beauty,  radiant  with  celestial  love  and  wisdom  ? 
and  that  all  objects  around  them  are  warmed 
and  colored  with  the  sweet  spiritual  life  that 
wells  up  from  their  own  happy  bosoms? 

This  is  the  answer  : 

They  are  “ the  children  of  God,  being  the 
children  of  the  resurrection.”  They  are  dead 
to  every  selfish  feeling  and  thought ; dead  to 
every  carnal  desire  and  motive ; dead,  utterly 
dead  to  everything  false  and  evil.  They  have 
risen  to  spiritual  life  in  God ; to  eternal  holiness 
and  purity ; to  the  spiritual  marriage,  incom- 
prehensible to  the  carnal  man,  and  for  ever 
concealed  from  his  eyes ; and  in  the  seraphic 
calm  of  mutual  love  and  wedded  bliss,  they  are 
images  and  likenesses  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

Would  not  these  “ children  of  the  resurrec- 
tion,”  with  their  super-sensual  and  holy  ideas 
of  marriage,  forgetting  all  the  evil  and  pain  of 
their  earth-life,  looking  by  chance  downward 
and  backward  into  our  dark  and  unholy  and 


148  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

selfish  souls,  poor  “ children  of  the  world”  as 
we  are — would  they  not  say  pitifully  of  us,  as 
we  say  blindly  of  them  : — 

“ The}^  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage ?” 

Trusting  that  the  reader  will  see  in  these 
descriptions,  and  in  the  principles  involved, 
something  more  than  the  play  of  fancy  or  im- 
agination ; — will  see,  indeed,  that  with  supreme 
art  the  great  philosophic  artist  is  simpl}'  cloth- 
ing the  True  in  the  garment  of  the  Beautiful; 
we  will  add  for  his  instruction  the  following 

O 

account  of  a marriage-ceremony  in  heaven 
given  by  this  illustrious  seer. 

A marriage-ceremony  in  heaven  ! 

Yes  : — and  is  it  not  as  rational  and  probable 
as  the  tabernacle  seen  in  heaven  by  Moses,  or 
as  the  still  more  remarkable  objects  and  events 
there  seen  and  described  by  the  prophets?  If 
angels  are  male  and  female  ; if  all  the  sweet  and 
gentle  and  heroic  sentiments  and  passions  sur- 
vive death  and  exist  forever ; if  they  live  in 
houses  and  homes,  and  under  perfect  civil  and 
social  institutions  ; if  marriage  is  perpetuated  in 
the  holiest  form  as  the  eternal  type  of  the  Lord’s 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  149 

mystical  union  with  his  Church ; is  it  not  most 
probable  and  proper  that,  when  two  conjugial 
partners,  having  passed  through  all  the  explora- 
tory processes  of  the  judgment,  are  brought 
face  to  face,  each  being  perfectly  revealed  as 
the  other’s  ideal  and  counterpart,  there  should 
be  some  public  and  official  recognition  of  the 
great  fact,  some  high  and  holy  and  final  seal 
set  to  a union  provided  and  blest  of  God,  and 
which  is  to  be  thenceforth  eternal? 

Surely  no  event  or  usage  in  either  world  can 
have  a grander  significance  than  this — the  cul- 
mination of  spiritual  affinities,  the  crowning 
work  of  love,  in  which  the  Heavenly  Father 
confirms  and  blesses  the  perfect  and  eternal 
union  of  two  of  his  redeemed  and  happy  chil- 
dren ! Indeed,  the  subject  is  so  transcendent 
and  holy,  that  Swedenborg  eschews  the  futile 
graces  of  poetry  and  rhetoric,  and  treats  it  with 
the  austere  simplicity  of  antique  art. 

“Toward  evening  there  came  a messenger 
clothed  in  linen  to  the  ten  strangers  who  at- 
tended the  angel  [newly-arrived  spirits  from 
the  earth],  and  invited  them  to  a wedding  which 
was  to  be  celebrated  the  next  day ; and  the 


150  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

strangers  were  much  pleased  to  think  that 
they  were  to  witness  a marriage  ceremony  in 
heaven. 

“When  they  awoke  in  the  morning,  they 
heard  the  singing  of  the  virgins  and  young 
girls  from  the  houses  around  the  public  places 
of  resort  mentioned  above.  They  sang  that 
morning  the  affection  of  conjugial  love,  the 
sweetness  of  which  so  affected  and  moved  the 
hearers,  that  they  perceived  a blessed  serenity 
instilled  into  their  bosoms. 

“At  the  hour  appointed  the  angel  said: 
‘ Make  yourselves  ready,  and  put  on  the  heav- 
enly  garments  which  our  prince  has  sent  3'ou.’ 
They  did  so  ; and  lo  ! the  garments  immediately 
became  resplendent  as  with  a flaming  light. 
They  asked  the  angel,  ‘ What  is  the  reason  of 
this?’  He  replied,  ‘ Because  3'Ou  are  going  to 
a wedding  ; and  when  that  is  the  case,  our  gar- 
ments always  assume  a shining  appearance,  and 
become  wedding-garments.’ 

“After  this,  the  angel  conducted  them  to  the 
house  where  the  nuptials  were  to  be  celebrated, 
and  the  porter  opened  the  door.  They  were 
received  and  welcomed  by  an  angel  sent  from 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  151 

the  bridegroom,  and  were  introduced  into  an 
antechamber  and  shown  to  the  seats  intended 
for  them.  There  was  a table  in  the  middle  of 
the  room,  and  on  it  a magnificent  candlestick 
with  seven  branches  and  sconces  of  gold. 
Against  the  walls  were  hung  silver  lamps, 
which  being  lighted  made  the  atmosphere  of 
the  room  of  a golden  hue.  There  were  two 
other  tables  on  which  loaves  of  bread  were 
placed  in  three  rows ; and  each  corner  had 
a little  table  with  crystal  cups  upon  it  for 
wine. 

“ While  they  were  looking  at  these  things,  a 
door  opened  near  the  marriage-chamber,  and 
six  virgins  came  forth  ; and  then  the  bridegroom 
and  the  bride,  holding  each  other  by  the  hand. 
The  angelic  pair  advanced  and  took  seats  op- 
posite the  candlestick,  the  bride  on  the  right 
and  the  virgins  standing  along  at  her  side. 
The  bridegroom  wore  a mitre  on  his  head,  and 
was  dressed  in  a bright  purple  robe  and  a tunic 
of  shining  linen,  with  an  ephod  on  which  was 
a golden  plate  set  round  with  diamonds.  On 
the  plate  was  engraved  a young  eagle,  the 
marriage  ensign  of  that  heavenly  society.  The 


152  The  Sexes',  Here  and  Hereafter. 

bride  was  dressed  in  a scarlet  robe,  underneath 
which  was  a garment  ornamented  with  fine 
needlework.  Beneath  her  bosom  was  a golden 
girdle,  and  on  her  head  she  wore  a golden 
crown  set  with  rubies. 

“When  they  were  seated,  the  bridegroom, 
turning  himself  to  the  bride,  put  a golden  ring 
on  her  finger.  He  then  took  bracelets  and  a 
pearl  necklace,  and  clasped  the  bracelets  about 
her  wrists  and  put  the  necklace  around  her 
neck,  and  said  : '■Accent  these  fledges.''  When 
she  had  accepted  them,  he  kissed  her  and  said  : 
^ Now  thou  art  mine;’'  and  he  called  her  his 
wife.  Then  the  company  exclaimed : ‘ May 
the  divine  blessing  be  upon  you.’  These  words 
were  first  pronounced  by  each  one  separately, 
and  then  by  all  together.  The}'-  were  pro- 
nounced also  in  his  turn  by  a certain  person 
sent  from  the  Prince  to  be  his  representative. 
At  that  instant  also  the  antechamber  was  filled 
with  an  aromatic  smoke,  which  was  a token  of 
blessing-  from  heaven. 

“Then  the  servants  in  waiting  took  loaves 
from  the  table  near  the  candlestick,  and  cups 
now  filled  with  wine  from  the  tables  in  the 


What  Swede7iborg  Says  About  it.  153 

corners  of  the  room,  and  gave  to  each  of  the 
guests  bread  and  wine  ; and  they  ate  and  drank. 
After  this  the  husband  and  wife  arose,  and  the 
six  virgins,  holding  silver  lamps  in  their  hands, 
attended  them  to  the  threshold,  and  the  married 
pair  entered  their  chamber.” 

Every  object  and  circumstance  of  this  sim- 
ple ceremony,  was  emblematic  of  something 
spiritual.  The  golden  candlestick,  the  silver 
lamps,  the  shining  garments,  the  auroral  atmo- 
sphere, the  six  virgins,  the  dress  of  the  bride 
and  bridegroom,  the  pledges  given  and  ac- 
cepted, the  blessings  bestowed, — the  whole 
scene  in  its  greatest  and  least  parts,  had  sa- 
cred meanings  to  the  illumined  assembly, 
which  in  our  highest  states  we  can  but  par- 
tially understand. 

The  grandest  and  most  solemn  feature  in  this 
ceremony  was  the  partaking  of  bread  and  wine 
as  in  the  Holy  Supper.  Marriage,  which  typifies 
regeneration,  and  the  Lord's  church  or  heaven 
in  the  soul,  is  also  typified  by  the  Holy  Supper. 
The  final  marriage  of  two  regenerate  souls  in 
heaven,  is  the  highest  and  holiest  act  of  union 
with  the  Lord,  the  genuine  spiritual  supper. 


154  I'he  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereafter. 

whereby  He  enters  into  and  sups  with  them 
and  they  with  Him. 

“Then  a certain  wise  personage,  one  of  the 
marriage-guests,  said  to  the  strangers : ‘ Do 
you  understand  the  meaning  of  what  you  have 
seen?’  They  replied  : ‘ Only  a little  of  it.’  And 
then  they  asked  him  why  the  bridegroom  was 
dressed  in  that  singular  manner.  He  answered  : 
‘ Because  the  bridegroom  represented  the  Lord 
(who  is  our  great  High  Priest) , and  the  bride 
represented  the  Church ; for  marriages  in 
heaven  represent  the  marriage  of  the  Lord 
with  the  Chur  eh.  This  is  the  reason  why  he 
wore  a mitre  on  his  brow,  and  was  dressed  in 
a robe,  tunic,  and  ephod  like  Aaron ; and  why 
the  bride  had  a crown  on  her  head  and  wore  a 
scarlet  mantle  like  a queen.  To-morrow,  how- 
ever, they  will  both  be  dressed  differently,  for 
this  representation  lasts  only  a day. 

“The  strangers  asked:  ‘Why  were  there 
not  bridesmen  with  the  bridegroom  to  corre- 
spond with  the  virgins  who  attended  the  bride  ?’ 

“ The  wise  one  answered:  ‘ Because  to-day 
we  males  are  numbered  among  the  virgins.’ 

“ They  said  : ‘ Explain  your  meaning.’ 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  155 

“ He  replied  : ‘A  virgin  signifies  the  Church, 
and  the  Church  consists  of  both  sexes.  There- 
fore also  we  men,  with  respect  to  the  Church, 
are  virgins.  This  is  evident  from  these  words 
in  Revelation  : 

“ ‘ These  are  they  who  were  not  defiled  with 
women : for  they  are  virgins ; and  they  follow 
the  Lamb  whithersoever  he  goeth.’” 

The  poets,  those  child-like  interpreters  of 
spiritual  truth,  understand  perfectly  that  per- 
sonal purity  and  chastity  are  not  lessened,  but 
immeasurably  augmented,  by  mandage.  Cov- 
entry Patmore,  the  poet  of  conjugial  love,  inter- 
prets the  Revelation  better  than  all  the  profes- 
sional commentators : 

“Virgins  are  they  before  the  Lord, 

Whose  souls  are  pure.  The  vestal  fire 
Is  not,  as  some  mis-read  the  Word, 

By  marriage  quenched,  but  burns  the  higher.” 

“ Lastly,  they  asked : ‘ Is  it  not  expedient 
that  a priest  should  be  present  and  minister  at 
your  marriage-ceremonies  ?’  The  marriage- 
guest  answered  : ‘ This  is  expedient  and  proper 
on  earth,  but  not  in  heaven,  on  account  of 
the  representation  of  the  Lord  himself  and 


156  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

the  Church.  On  earth  they  know  nothing  of 
these  things.  Yet  even  with  us  a priest  min- 
isters in  whatever  relates  to  betrothings,  and 
hears,  receives,  confirms,  and  consecrates  the 
consent  of  the  parties.’  ” 

What  a vast  change  it  would  make  in  the 
social  condition  of  our  world,  if  this  custom  of 
the  spiritual  life  existed  here  also ; if  marriage 
was  regarded  as  such  a holy  and  divine  institu- 
tion, that  none  would  enter  it  until  they  had 
confided  their  loves,  their  hopes,  their  motives, 
their  aspirations,  to  a pastor’s  spiritual  and 
loving  inspection ; and  until  every  unworthy 
thought  and  feeling  had,  through  his  assist- 
ance, been  scourged  from  their  souls  ! 

It  is  necessary  to  impress  it  upon  our  natural 
minds,  steeped  in  sensualism  as  they  are,  that 
these  heavenly  marriages  are  so  chaste,  that  the 
life  of  such  marriages  is  chastity  itself.  The 
faintest  breath  of  earthly  passion  would  stain 
forever  the  angelic  mirror  of  conjugial  purity. 
By  the  great  law,  that  similar  natures  attract, 
while  dissimilar  ones  repel,  a separation  is 
effected  between  souls  after  death.  The  evil 
pass  into  evil  societies ; the  good  ascend  into 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  157 

heaven.  The  good  become  continually  bettef 
and  purer  and  holier.  The  marriage  sphere  of 
heaven  is  so  chaste  and  powerful,  that  evil 
and  licentious  spirits  are  blinded  and  suffocated 
when  they  approach  the  Happy  World.  Fe- 
male angels  are  intensely  sensitive  thermome- 
ters to  the  heat  which  arises  from  the  activity 
of  sensual  passion.  The  most  hypocritical 
spirits  cannot  long  conceal  their  interior  licen- 
tiousness from  such  amazingly  acute  perceptions. 

Robertson,  a charming  English  divine,  thus 
illustrates  this  remarkable  detective  power 
which  innocence  and  purity  display  in  the 
presence  of  their  moral  opposites  : 

“Purity  can  detect  the  presence  of  the  evil 
it  does  not  understand.  As  the  dove  which 
has  never  seen  a hawk  trembles  at  its  presence  ; 
as  the  horse  rears  uneasily  when  a wild  beast 
unknown  and  new  to  it,  is  near ; so  innocence 
understands,  and  yet  understands  not,  the  mean- 
ing of  the  unholy  look,  the  guilty  tone,  the  sin- 
ful manner.  It  shudders  and  shrinks  from  it 
by  a power  given  to  it,  like  that  which  God  has 
conferred  on  the  unreasoning  mimosa.” 

Most  persons  to  whom  the  idea  of  sex  and 
0 


158  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

marriage  after  death  is  new  and  strange,  imme- 
diately ask  the  same  question  as  did  the  Saddu- 
cees,  What  will  they  do  who  have  been  mar- 
ried several  times?  There  is  no  difficulty  on 
this  point,  when  we  reflect  that  the  unions 
formed  in  this  world  from  various  external  and 
selfish  motives,  are  not  marriages  at  all  in  the 
spiritual  sense  of  the  word.  Most  marriages 
here  are  alliances  or  contracts  for  this  world 
only.  They  are,  however,  schools  and  means 
of  discipline  for  the  spiritual  life,  making  a 
spiritual  marriage  possible.  God’s  marriages 
are  spiritual,  and  therefore  indissoluble.  Those 
whom  He  hath  joined  together  in  eternal  union 
by  an  organic  and  mutual  affinity,  can  never  be 
sundered — no,  not  even  by  death. 

All  external  bonds  are  broken  by  death ; all 
human  institutions,  civil  and  social,  vanish 
away.  In  the  spiritual  world  our  associations 
will  be  determined,  not  by  outward  things  as 
on  earth,  but  by  our  interior  spiritual  affinities. 
Those  who  are  similar  to  us  will  undergo  ex- 
periences similar  to  our  own.  It  is  by  this 
great  law  of  passional  attraction  that  societies 
in  heaven  and  hell  are  formed,  consisting  of 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  it.  159 

spirits,  male  and  female,  who  harmonize  so 
thoroughly  in  affection  and  thought,  that  they 
must  needs  live  together  and  have  the  same 
objective  scenery  around  them.  To  every  male 
spirit  in  heaven,  there  will  be  some  female 
spirit  more  interiorly  drawn  than  any  other 
spirit  in  the  universe,  his  exact  counterpart,  his 
spiritual  complement.  They  will  live  in  the 
same  society  and  in  the  same  house ; have  the 
same  loves  and  the  same  life ; and  their  union 
will  be  necessarily  eternal. 

No  one  can  know  while  on  earth,  whether 
an  existing  legal  marriage  is  a true  spiritual 
marriage  or  not.  To  judge  by  appearances  is 
not  righteous  judgment.  Our  interior  character 
is  sometimes  vastly  different  from  our  exterior. 
We  cannot  truly  know  ourselves  or  each  other 
until  we  are  stript  of  our  earthly  wrappages, 
and  stand  forth  in  our  spiritual  character ; until 
what  has  been  spoken  in  the  closet  shall  be 
proclaimed  on  the  house-tops.  Swedenborg 
says  that  partners  who  seem  exteriorly  to  be 
the  closest  friends,  are  sometimes  interiorly  the 
most  inveterate  enemies.  On  the  other  hand, 
couples  who  seem  to  be  very  dissimilar  and  un- 


i6o  The  Sexes J Here  and  Hereafter. 

happy  here,  may  find,  after  death  and  the  judg- 
ment, that  interior  and  hidden  sympathies  stream 
forth  and  melt  them  into  blissful  and  eternal 
reconciliations.  So  marriage  on  earth  is  not  a 
finality.  It  was  meant  to  be  a grand  discipline 
of  life,  a stepping-stone,  a preparation  for  true 
marriage  hereafter. 

It  is  clear  from  this,  that  marriages  in  this 
world  interpose  no  difficulties  in  the  wa}’  of 
spiritual  marriage  in  the  next.  It  is  asked  also. 
What  will  the  unmarried  do?  They  are  drawn 
to  their  spiritual  affinities,  as  all  are ; and  some- 
times, perhaps,  more  easily  than  those  who 
have  been  externally  married  and  are  compelled 
to  divest  themselves  of  earthly  affections  and 
memories.  Swedenborg  says  that  the  Lord  in 
his  mercy  alwaj's  provides  “ similitudes,”  or 
conjugial  partners,  for  those  who  desire  love 
truly  conjugial : if  not  on  earth,  owing  to  num- 
berless hindering  contingencies,  yet  He  surely 
provides  them  in  heaven. 

Those  who  have  renounced  the  world  and 
its  temptations,  and  vowed  perpetual  virginity  ; 
neglectinor  natural  duties,  and  devoted  whollv  to 
spiritual  things  ; expecting,  from  their  superior 


What  Swedenborg  Says  About  h.  i6l 

purity  and  sanctity,  a special  reward  hereafter ; 
are  most  to  be  pitied  of  all  the  spirits  who  come 
into  the  heavenly  kingdom.  They  are  kindly 
received  by  all  the  heavenly  societies ; but 
when  they  feel  the  sphere  of  conjugial  love, 
which  is  one  of  intense  activity,  buoyancy,  and 
joy,  they  secretly  revolt  at  it  on  account  of 
their  false  ideas  of  chastity  and  holiness,  and 
become  sad  and  fretful.  They  then  go  from 
one  society  to  another,  disappointed  and  doubt- 
ing, and  are  only  satisfied  when  they  collect 
together  with  their  like,  and  enjoy  a communion 
of  thought  which  is  repulsive  to  all  truly  re- 
generate spirits.  The  good  among  them  are 
finally  delivered  from  their  delusions,  and  find 
their  conjugial  mates. 

Having  convinced  ourselves  by  a rational 
process  that  the  sexual  relation  is  nniversal  and 
eternal ; that  love  in  this  world  and  the  next  is 
the  central,  unitizing,  organizing  element  in 
social  life ; that  marriage  is  the  highest,  holiest, 
and  perpetual  type  of  those  divine  forces  which 
create  and  bind  all  things  together ; we  are 
prepared  to  make  a practical  application  of  the 

great  doctrines  of  Swedenborg  on  these  subjects. 

11  0* 


162  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

The  most  momentous  questions  before  the 
world,  are  not  those  of  government,  or  finance, 
or  constitutions,  or  law,  or  science,  or  art,  or 
physics,  or  metaphysics  ; but  these  : 

What  are  the  spiritual  differences  between 
man  and  woman? — or  the  Philosophy  of  Sex. 

What  are  the  laws  of  the  action  and  re-action 
of  the  sexes  on  each  other? — or  the  Philosophy 
of  Love. 

What  is  the  divine  order  or  plan  of  union 
between  the  sexes,  whereby  two  conjugial  part- 
ners are  made  one,  creation  perpetuated,  regen- 
eration effected,  and  heaven  filled  with  angels, 
once  men? — or  the  Philosophy  of  INIarriage. 

What  are  the  distinctive  spheres  of  life, 
function,  duty,  and  use  for  the  masculine  and 
feminine  faculties? — or  the  elements  of  anew, 
perfect,  and  final  Sociology  for  man. 

We  appeal  in  vain,  for  answers,  to  the  sci- 
ences which  are  based  on  the  experience  of  our 
fallible  senses  ; which  practically  divorce  God 
from  nature,  and  spirit  from  matter ; and  which 
offer  no  philosophical  bond  of  connection  be- 
tween the  visible  and  the  invisible  worlds. 

We  appeal  in  vain  to  a merely  literal  and 


What  Swedenborg . Says  About  it.  163 

sensuous  interpretation  of  the  Word  of  God, 
separate  from  its  living  spirit ; — a system  of  in- 
terpretation which  falsifies  the  Scripture,  dark- 
ens the  understanding,  and  has  been  the  prolific 
source  of  error  and  mysticism. 

We  appeal  in  vain  to  our  short  and  imperfect 
human  experience,  and  to  the  chaos  we  call 
history,  for  any  genuine  truth  about  problems 
which  demand  for  their  satisfactory  solution  the 
revealing  light  of  heaven. 

Swedenborg  alone  of  all  men  claims  to  have 
lived  for  nearly  thirty  years  in  sensible  contact 
with  both  worlds,  analyzing  both  and  discover- 
ing the  relations  they  hold  to  each  other.  Let 
us  see  what  he  says  about  the  spiritual  differ- 
ences between  man  and  woman,  the  philosophy 
of  beauty  and  love,  and  the  spiritual  and  eternal 
uses  of  marriage.  He  may  give  us  such  ra- 
tional insight  into  the  organization  of  the  human 
mind,  that  we  may  consider  possible,  or  even 
probable,  his  exquisite  ideal  of  conjugial  love 
in  heaven,  which  is  so  transcendently  pure  and 
beautiful,  that  with  our  present  light  we  are 
tempted  to  regard  it  rather  as  the  dream  of  a 
Poet  than  the  vision  of  a Seer. 


/ 


CHAPTER  V. 

SPIRITUAL  DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  MAN  AND 
WOMAN. 


HE  difference  between  the  spiritual  con- 
stitutions of  man  and  woman,  is  funda- 
mental and  organic.  It  is  the  key  to 
the  forms,  functions,  powers,  duties,  and  pecu- 
liarities of  each  sex ; the  key  to  the  influence 
they  exert  on  each  other  ; the  key  to  the  spiritual 
philosophy  of  marriage,  and  to  many  of  the 
most  wonderful  secrets  of  nature  and  man. 

Swedenborg  has  given  us  this  key. 

This  discovery  was  not  made  by  scientific 
induction,  nor  was  it  merel}^  the  result  of  rare 
philosophic  insight.  It  was  revealed  as  one  of 
the  countless  treasures  which  lie  concealed  be- 
neath the  letter  of  the  Word  of  God. 

Every  doctrine  taught  by  Swedenborg  is 
based  upon,  drawn  from,  and  confirmed  and 
illustrated  by  the  Divine  Word.  Those  who 
i6r 


spiritual  Differences  Detween  the  Sexes.  165 

reject  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  those  who  can- 
not be  brought  to  see  their  interior  glory  by 
means  of  a better  and  higher  interpretation, 
will  probably  not  understand  all  we  have  to  say, 
and  must  be  left  to  feed  upon  the  husks  of  na- 
turalism, while  in  their  Father’s  house  there  is 
bread  enough  and  to  spare. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis, — rejected  by 
science,  doubted  by  reason,  the  jest  of  the  infi- 
del, the  stumbling-block  of  the  Christian, — con- 
tains psychological  truths  of  the  highest  order ; 
truths  so  transcendent  and  universal,  that  vol- 
umes might  be  written  in  elucidation  of  each 
verse  as  a text.  From  this  source  we  have 
drawn  the  principles  which  underlie  our  theory 
of  love,  sex  and  marriage.  Swedenborg’s  ex- 
position in  his  Arcana  Coelestia,  refers  spe- 
cially to  the  changed  relation  between  the  will 
and  understanding  occasioned  by  the  fall ; but 
the  same  principles  are  applicable  to  the  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife,  or  of  the  Lord  and 
his  Church.  Many  of  the  most  beautiful  truths 
are  even  apparent  in  the  letter  of  the  Word. 

Man,  the  image  of  God,  contained  the  female 
element  within  himself  when  first  created. 


i66  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

“ Let  us  make  man  in  our  image  and  after 
our  likeness.” 

The  plural  number  is  here  used,  because  the 
Divine  Love  and  the  Divine  Wisdom,  or  the 
bi-sexual  elements  in  the  Divine  nature,  are 
the  creative  power  which  gives  to  man  the 
bi-sexual  character  of  his  own  organization. 

“ So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image  ; in 
the  image  of  God  created  he  him ; male  and 
female  created  he  them.” 

Again  says  the  Divine  Word  : 

“In  the  day  that  God  created  man,  in  the 
image  of  God  made  He  him  : 

“Male  and  female  created  He  them;  and 
blessed  them,  and  called  their  name  Adam  in 
the  day  when  they  were  created.” 

Adam,  therefore,  containing  within  himself 
both  the  male  and  female  elements,  was  the 
image  and  likeness  of  God. 

Why  was  the  female  element  taken  out  of 
the  man,  so  that  the  sexes  became  distinct  and 
objective  to  each  other? 

If  the  love  or  female  principle  had  remained 
within  the  man,  exciting,  attracting,  and  vivif}^- 
ing  his  wisdom-principle,  man  would  have 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes. 

become  a form  of  self-love,  and  would  have 
been  withheld  from  any  external  love,  use  or 
activity.  But  it  was  taken  out  of  the  man,  and 
presented  to  him  in  a beautiful  external  form, 
an  image  or  counterpart  or  complement  of  him- 
self, so  that  he  might  love  himself  in  another. 
This  mutual  love  of  one’s  self  in  another,  or 
of  another  as  one’s  self,  is  the  conjugial  love — 
the  fountain  and  mother  of  all  loves. 

The  ancients  represented,  by  the  graceful 
myth  of  Narcissus,  what  man  would  have  been  if 
the  female  element  had  not  been  taken  out  of  him, 
and  presented  to  him  in  a beautiful  external  form. 
Narcissus  was  a beautiful  young  man  who  died 
for  love  of  his  own  face  in  the  water.  He  had 
no  attendant  but  Echo — the  shadow  of  himself; 
and  he  consumed  away  because  he  failed  to 
realize  his  ideal.  If  his  Echo  had  been  turned 
into  an  Eve,  he  would  have  discovered  a para- 
dise of  uses,  beauties,  and  glories  all  around 
him.  After  death,  according  to  the  story,  he 
was  changed  into  a flower,  which  was  made 
sacred  to  the  infernal  powers ; in  regard  to 
which  Lord  Bacon  says  : “Whatever  produced 
no  fruit  in  itself,  but  passeth  and  vanisheth  as 


1 68  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter . 

if  it  had  never  been,  like  the  way  of  a ship  in 
the  sea,  the  ancients  were  wont  to  dedicate  to 
the  ghosts  and  the  powers  below.” 

This  creation  of  Eve  out  of  Adam,  is  also  the 
symbol  of  the  larger  creation  of  the  whole  uni- 
verse of  souls  out  of  the  bosom  of  God — the 
All-Father.  The  Love  of  God,  yearning  for 
something  to  love  outside  of  his  own  perfec- 
tions, takes  an  objective  form  in  the  created 
universe,  drawn  from  his  own  substance  and 
vivified  by  his  own  life ; and  this  form  is  a 
female  form,  and  known  in  its  largest  and 
grandest  signification  as  the  Church  of  God, 
embracing  all  who  are  capable  of  receiving,  in 
the  greatest  or  least  degree,  the  descending 
influx  of  the  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom. 

Thus  Christ,  or  the  Divine  Wisdom,  the  Di- 
vine Truth,  “ the  Light  of  the  World,”  becomes 
the  Bridegroom,  the  Husband  of  the  Church. 
Their  love  is  conjugial,  reciprocal,  eternal. 

Wisdom  is  only  satisfied  with  love ; love  is 
only  satisfied  with  wisdom.  Each  without  the 
other  is  nothing ; united  they  are  all  things. 
Each  sees  in  the  other  itself  beautified  and  glo- 
rified, its  hope,  its  dream,  its  heaven,  its  all. 


spiritual  Differe7ices  Betweeji  the  Sexes.  169 

Their  attractive  or  passional  affinity  for  each 
other,  yearning  to  become  one  In  form,  soul, 
function,  use,  and  life,  is  love.  This  concep- 
tion of  love  includes  all  loves,  as  the  sea  in- 
cludes its  waves. 

Neither  God,  nor  Adam  his  Image,  could  be 
satisfied  with  the  self-analysis  and  contempla- 
tive powers  of  the  introverted  understanding 
alone.  The  living  soul,  inspired  with  wisdom 
by  love,  yearns  for  something  outside  of  itself 
to  reciprocate  its  affection ; something  which  it 
can  call  its  own,  and  on  which  it  can  lavish  all 
the  activities  of  its  being.  Without  such  an 
external  object,  man  is  said  to  be  “ alone,”  and 
the  proper  reciprocating  object  is  called  a “ help 
meet  for  him.”  That  he  might  not  be  “alone,” 
God  created  a universe  of  souls,  a vast  spiritual 
Church  or  Bride  for  himself;  and  repeating  the 
same  work  in  Adam,  He  blessed  him  with  Eve. 
There  is  another  higher  and  to  us  more  ob- 
scure meaning  of  the  word  “alone.”  It  implies 
a celestial  state  of  life  and  marriage  in  which 
the  soul  is  one  with  the  Lord,  and  sees  only 
Him  in  all  things  of  the  created  universe.  The 
descent  from  that  highest  state  into  a lower  but 


p 


170  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

still  holy  and  beautiful  spiritual  state,  is  meant 
by  the  deep  sleep  falling  upon  Adam,  and  the 
creation  of  an  external  feminine  counterpart  to 
his  interior  life.  The  expulsion  from  the  Garden 
of  Eden  is  the  descent,  through  disobedience, 
from  the  spiritual  into  the  natural  degree  of  life 
in  which  we  still  live. 

The  understanding,  or  properly  male  ele- 
ment, which  penetrates  and  analyzes  all  things, 
is  not  satisfied  with  the  infinite  displays  of  God’s 
wisdom  and  power  and  glory  in  the  universe 
around  us.  Great  and  dazzling  as  they  are, 
they  are  as  cold  and  distant  and  lifeless  to  our 
hearts,  as  the  stars  of  a summer  night.  We 
may  know  all  things  and  all  creatures,  divine 
their  properties  and  call  them  by  their  names, 
as  Adam  did  ; but  the  “ help  meet”  is  not  found 
there.  We  can  find  it  onl}^  in  something  taken 
out  of  ourselves  and  thei'efore  our  own  ; bone 
of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh  ; something 
in  whose  radiant  beauty  and  life  and  love  we 
can  realize  the  unspeakable  dreams  and  intui- 
tions of  our  inmost  souls. 

The  utter  loneliness  of  the  man  whose  better 
half  of  life  has  not  yet  been  made  objective  to 


spiritual  Differences  Betwee7i  the  Sexes.  171 

his  senses,  is  thus  described  by  the  poet  of 
Hope,  with  a sweetness  which  ever  bears  repe- 
tition : 

“Till  Hymen  brought  his  love-delighted  hour, 

There  dwelt  no  joy  in  Eden’s  rosy  bower; 

In  vain  the  viewless  seraph,  lingering  there 
At  starry  midnight,  charmed  the  silent  air; 

In  vain  the  wild-bird  caroled  on  the  steep, 

To  hail  the  sun,  slow  wheeling  from  the  deep ; 

In  vain,  to  soothe  the  solitary  shade, 

Aerial  notes  in  mingling  measure  played; 

The  summer  wind  that  shook  the  spangled  tree. 

The  whispering  wind,  the  murmur  of  the  bee  : — 

Still  slowly  passed  the  melancholy  day. 

And  still  the  stranger  wist  not  where  to  stray. 

The  world  was  sad  ! the  garden  was  a wild ! 

And  man,  the  hermit,  sighed — til)  Woman  smiled.” 

Woman  thus  created  was  not  another  man ; 
nor  was  she  a creature  of  a higher  order ; for 
she  was  created  out  of  Adam  and  for  him. 
She  is  a part  of  him ; bone  of  his  bone,  flesh 
of  his  flesh ; as  he  recognized  her  to  be,  when 
he  called  her  his  wife  and  spake  those  remark- 
able words  : 

“ Therefore  shall  a man  leave  his  father  and 
his  mother  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife  : and 
they  shall  be  one  ffesh." 


172  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

A charming  writer,  full  of  deep  and  spiritual 
thought,  maintains  that  woman  is  a distinct  or 
discrete  creation,  coming  after  man  and  supe- 
rior to  him ; having  more  organs,  functions, 
uses,  and  powers,  and  therefore  destined  to 
rule  the  world.*  Love  or  woman  will  cer- 
tainl}^  rule  and  save  the  world ; but  it  will  be 
done  by  working  in  married  harmony  with 
wisdom  or  man,  its  conjugial  partner. 

Anatomically  speaking,  man  and  woman 
have  the  same  organs  ; but  they  have  different 
degrees  of  development  according  to  the  func- 
tions of  paternity  or  maternity  to  be  exercised. 
What  is  fully  developed  in  one  sex,  is  rudiment- 
ary or  scarcely  visible  in  the  other.  And  all 
of  woman’s  highest  functions,  like  herself,  are 
still  only  a part  of  man ; for  it  is  her  greatest 
office  to  ultimate  on  the  material  plane  of  being 
the  forces  with  which  she  has  been  impregnated 
by  the  masculine  element  from  the  spiritual  side. 
And  there  lies  a grand  m3'stery. 

Paternity  and  not  maternit}’  is  the  crowning 
phenomenon  and  wonder  of  nature.  We  can 
partially  understand  the  maternal  aspect  of 

* Mrs.  Farnham’s  “Woman  anu  her  Era.'’ 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  173 

vegetation ; the  bosom  of  mother  earth ; the 
nutritive  elements  provided  by  air  and  water ; 
the  chemical  combinations  which  build  up  the 
new  and  beautiful  structures  before  us  ; but  the 
impregnating  power  of  the  solar  ray,  the  pa- 
ternal aspect  of  it  all,  remains  an  inscrutable 
mystery. 

Swedenborg  tells  us  that  the  soul  of  the  child 
comes  from  the  father.  The  body,  with  its 
animal  spirits  derived  from  the  mother,  would 
be  a mere  human  animal,  irrational  and  mortal 
as  the  Undine  of  fiction,  if  it  were  not  spirit- 
ualized by  the  paternal  forces.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  discuss  the  physiological  or  theological 
bearings  of  this  great  truth.  We  only  wish  to 
affirm  that  woman  with  her  maternal  functions 
and  forces  is  an  appendage  to  man,  a com- 
plementary and  supplementary  form,  through 
which  his  spiritual  forces  are  given  a physical 
Qutbirth  and  embodiment. 

In  one  sense  woman  is  superior  to  man.  She 
is  the  central,  highest  figure  in  the  creation. 
The  last  created,  receiving  first  the  Divine  life, 
she  intervenes,  as  it  were,  between  man  and 
heaven.  The  vegetable  kingdom  is  formed  out 

P 


174  The  Sexes;  Here  aiid  Hereafter. 

of  the  mineral,  and  lifts  it  higher  toward  the 
vital  world.  The  animal  kingdom  is  formed 

O 

from  both,  and  comes  still  nearer  to  the  spirit- 
ual. Man  is  builded  upon  all  the  kingdoms 
below  him,  and  connects  with  heaven.  Woman 
is  not  another  kingdom  separated  from  him, 
but  a part  of  himself,  reaching  higher  into  the 
celestial  atmosphere  ; and,  like  the  lofty  places 
of  our  earth,  she  is  first  illumined  by  the  ethe- 
real touches  of  the  coming  Day. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  with  the  same 
education,  the  same  opportunities  and  pursuits, 
the  same  surroundings,  etc.,  man  and  woman 
would  be  very  much  alike,  and  indeed  almost 
undistinguishable.  It  is  not  so,  however. 
Woman’s  organic  instincts  would  finally  assert 
themselves  under  any  conceivable  pressure  of 
external  training.  She  would  surely  revolt 
against  any  life  which  did  not  involve  and 
effect  her  thorough  and  spiritual  union  with 
man,  such  a total  immersion  of  self  in  the  con- 
jugial  partner  as  to  produce  reall}*  one  fesh. 

She  is  not  the  equal  of  man ; she  is  not  his 
superior.  She  was  taken  out  of  him  ; she  be- 
longs to  him  ; she  is  his  interior  self  in  external 


spiritual  Differences  Betzveen  the  Sexes.  175 

form.  She  is  nothing  but  a shadow,  or  image 
in  a mirror,  without  him.  She  yearns  for 
union  with  him,  as  he  does  for  union  with  her, 
more  than  for  all  things  else.  Neither  man 
nor  woman  would  have  a destiny  or  even  a 
life  without  the  other.  It  is  their  union  which 
makes  the  perfect  Man,  the  image  and  likeness 
of  God,  just  as  the  union  of  the  Lord  with  his 
Church  will  make  the  perfect  world  and  the 
pei'fect  universe. 

The  bi-sexual  nature  of  the  Supreme  Being 
is  decomposed  in  the  sexes  as  light  is  decom- 
posed in  the  prism.  Break  a magnet  into  two 
pieces,  and  each  part  is  still  a magnet  with  its 
positive  and  negative  or  male  and  female  poles. 
Man  and  woman  stricken  off,  to  speak  analogi- 
cally, from  the  Divine  substance  and  life,  remain 
both  masculine  and  feminine  in  themselves, 
although  objectively  masculine  and  feminine 
to  each  other.  Eveiy  man  has  a feminine, 
every  woman  a masculine,  element  more  or  less 
developed.  The  key  to  the  differences  hetzveen 
the  sexes  is  this:  the  poles  are  reversed. 

Wisdom,  as  revealed  through  the  operations 
of  the  understanding,  is  the  positive  or  ruling 


176  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

element  in  man,  and  dominates  or  determines 
the  character  of  his  love. 

Love,  as  revealed  through  the  activity  of  the 
affections,  is  the  positive  or  ruling  element  in 
woman,  and  dominates  or  determines  the  cha- 
racter of  her  wisdom. 

The  interior  life  and  vital  principle  in  man 
lies  in  this,  that  he  is  inspired  with  the  love  of 
the  divine  wisdom,  that  is,  of  every  external 
manifestation  of  the  divine  glory,  constituting 
the  whole  of  knowledge,  science,  art,  philoso- 
phy, and  all  things  upon  wdiich  the  understand- 
ing is  exercised.  The  interior  and  vital  soul 
of  w'oman  is  not  the  same.  It  is  the  love 
of  all  these  things,  not  for  themselves  but  as 
they  have  been  acquired  by  and  exist  in  man. 
She  loves  man  for  all  those  things  for  which 
he  wmuld  naturally  love  himself,  and  that  is 
the  reason  why  he  is  so  w^armly  attracted  to 
her. 

Othello’s  wooing  of  Desdemona  by  the  story 
of  his  wmnderful  “battles,  sieges,  fortunes,” 
hairbreadth  escapes  and  “moving  accidents  by 
flood  and  field,”  very  beautifully  illustrates  this 
truth  : 


spiritual  Differences  BeHvcen  the  Sexes.  177 

“My  storj’  being  done, 

She  gav'e  me  for  m3'  pains  a world  of  sighs  : 

She  swore — in  faith  ’twas  strange,  ’twas  passing  strange, 
’Twas  pitiful,  ’twas  wondrous  pitiful! 

She  wished  she  had  not  heard  it : 3’et  she  wished 
That  heaven  had  7nade  her  such  a man. 

******** 

She  loved  me  for  the  dangers  I had  passed, 

And  I loved  her  that  she  did  pity  them.” 

Milton  also  caught  a glimpse  of  the  spiritual 
relation  of  the  sexes  when  he  said  of  Adam 
and  Eve : 

“ In  their  face 

The  image  of  their  glorious  Maker  shone. 

For  contemplation  he,  and  valor  formed, 

For  softness  she,  and  sweet  attractive  grace; 

He  for  God  onlj',  she  for  God  in  him.” 

Let  the  reader  ever  bear  in  mind  that  in  the 
following  statements  of  the  influence  of  the 
sexes  on  each  other,  we  have  presumed  both 
parties  to  be  living  in  true  Christian  order,  in 
obedience  to  the  commandments  of  God.  It 
would  be  a great  mistake  to  suppose  that  all 
these  beautiful  things  are  asserted  of  men  and 
women  in  the  present  corrupt  and  disorderly 
conditions  of  society.  They  are  the  possibili- 
ties of  the  race. 

12 


17S  TJie  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

Man’s  love  is  abstract;  woman’s  concrete. 
His  love  is  for  principles  ; hers  is  for  persons. 
Man  loves  himself  in  w'oman,  but  woman  loves 
man  unselfishly.  Hence  the  intensit}’’,  the  in- 
dividuality, the  singleness,  the  spirituality  or 
super-sensuousness  of  her  love.  Every  woman 
is  the  organic  form  or  realization  of  some  man’s 
intellect,  loyal  only  to  him  and  his,  and  yearn- 
ing and  groping  through  the  great  dark  of  our 
natural  life  for  a perfect  and  eternal  union  with 
her  conjugial  partner. 

Eve’s  intuitive  perception  that  man’s  life  was 
his  love  of  wisdom,  and  that  her  own  wisdom 
was  due  to  her  love  of  man’s  wisdom,  led  her 
to  give  a willing  ear  to  the  temptation  of  the 
serpent,  or  sensual  principle,  which  said  : 

“ In  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes 
shall  be  opened  ; and  ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
li7iowing  good  and  evil. 

“And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was 
good  for  food,  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the 
eyes,  and  a tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one  -wise., 
she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat ; and 
gave  also  unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he 
did  eat. 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  179 

“And  the  e3^es  of  them  both  were  opened.” 

Woman  thus  sensualized  both  herself  and 
man  to  gratify  him,  as  she  is  doing  at  the 
present  day.  When  man  acquires  interior  and 
heavenly  wisdom,  woman  will  inspire  him  with 
a love  entirely  super-sensuous  and  celestial. 

The  zealous  devotion  of  woman  to  church  and 
state,  and  to  all  the  institutions  established  by 
man,  is  simply  the  expression  of  her  love  of  the 
masculine  wisdom  by  which  all  these  things 
have  been  achieved  or  constructed.  She  is 
conservative  and  aristocratic  where  he  is ; re- 
publican and  radical  where  he  is.  She  attaches 
herself  to  him  and  his,  and  identifies  herself 
with  them.  The  women  of  the  Southern  States 
cared  little  or  nothing  for  the  principles  which 
animated  the  Southern  soldier ; nothing  for 
slavery  or  separate  nationalit}'.  Their  self- 
sacrifice,  which  has  never  been  exceeded  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  was  made  for  persons  ; 
for  husbands  and  sons,  for  lovers  and  brothers. 
Thus  was  it  always ; thus  will  it  always  be. 

There  is  no  height  to  which  woman  cannot 
rise,  no  depth  to  which  she  will  not  fall,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  great  law  of  her  being,  that  she 


iSo  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 


must  ultimate  in  external  forms  of  beaut}",  love, 
and  use,  the  secret  life  with  which  she  is  im- 
pregnated by  the  masculine  sphere  of  thought. 
The  holy  women  who  accompanied  Jesus,  intu- 
itively divining  the  spiritual  truths  of  his  king- 
dom, outstripped  in  faith  and  devotion  the 
tardier  understanding  of  the  apostles.  Vivified 
by  the  same  truth,  it  was  a woman  who  taught 
with  practical  sublimity  the  doctrine  of  the  uni- 
versal brotherhood  of  man,  long  before  men 
had  more  than  dreamed  of  giving  it  political 
and  social  expression.  The  story  is  this  : 

“ St.  Catherine  of  Siena  on  one  occasion  ac- 
companied a notorious  malefactor  to  the  scaf- 
fold, and  administered  to  him  the  consolations 
of  religion.  When  the  axe  had  done  its  duty, 
she  lifted  up  the  bleeding  head,  and  addressing 
the  assembled  crowd  by  whom  she  was  re- 
garded as  a direct  messenger  of  God,  she  said  : 
‘ Fear  not  to  raise  your  prayers  for  this  man’s 
soul.  I accept  him  as  my  brother and  she 
kissed  the  dead  lips.” 

Swedenborg  says  that  with  man  love  is  inte- 
rior and  wisdom  exterior,  while  with  woman 
wisdom  is  interior  and  love  is  exterior.  Hence 


Spirihial  Diff^erences  Between  the  Sexei.  i8i 

the  strength  and  power  of  man’s  external  form 
and  the  grace  and  beauty  of  woman’s.  Hence 
also  man  is  the  creator,  the  father,  the  builder, 
the  organizer ; for  the  divine  energies  work 
through  his  interior  life  and  manifest  them- 
selves by  means  of  his  understanding.  Wo- 
man receives  not  the  divine  wisdom,  but  the 
male  wisdom  or  understanding,  into  her  interior 
life,  and  there  it  becomes  intuition,  a spiritual 
instinct ; and  she  brings  it  all  down  into  nature 
again,  and  gives  him  back  the  True  clothed  in 
the  garment  of  the  Beautiful.  Unconsciously 
to  herself  and  to  him,  she  transfigures  the  crude 
shapes  of  his  earthly  thought  into  apparitions 
of  spiritual  loveliness,  which  excite  and  purify 
his  affections  for  the  reception  of  still  higher 
degrees  and  forms  of  wisdom. 

Of  the  grandest  phenomena  in  nature  our 
poor  spirits  are  wholly  unconscious.  We  feel 
nothing  of  the  transcendent  miracles  which  are 
being  wrought  every  moment  in  our  own  bodies. 
The  weight  of  the  atmosphere,  the  whirling 
motion  of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  the  magnetic 
currents  encircling  the  globe,  and  a thousand 
other  wonders,  are  all  imperceptible  to  us.  We 
Q 


iSz  The  Sexes;  TTere  and  Hereafter. 

know  nothing,  also,  of  the  spiritual  currents 
which  proceed  to  and  fro  between  the  sexes, 
binding  them  together  for  the  uses  of  life,  as 
the  heart  and  lungs  are  bound  together  in  the 
bosom  of  the  living  man. 

Love  and  Wisdom  are  the  opposite  poles  of 
the  magnet,  which  always  attract,  sustain,  ex- 
cite and  intensify  each  other.  Man’s  interior- 
life  being  the  love  of  divine  wisdom,  is  impreg- 
nated by  the  Divine  Wisdom,  and  the  result  is’ 
the  masculine  form  and  understanding.  Wo- 
man s interior  life  being  the  wisdom  or  under- 
standing of  the  man,  is  impregnated  by  the 
Divine  Love,  and  the  result  is  the  ineffable 
charm  and  beauty  of  the  female  form.  Such 
is  the  influx  of  the  Divine  life  into  both  sexes. 
Thence  follows  the  operation,  by  spiritual  in- 
flux, of  the  sexes  on  each  other. 

One  current  starts  from  the  Divine  Love  as  a 
centre,  and  flows  through  woman ; for  woman 
is  receptive  of  the  divine  feminine,  and  ulti- 
mates  the  love  she  receives  in  beautiful  forms 
and  uses.  The  other  current  starts  from  the 
Divine  Wisdom  as  a centre,  and  flows  through 
man  who  is  receptive  of  the  divine  masculine. 


spiritual  Differences  Detweejt  the  Sexes.  1S3 

and  ultimates  the  wisdom  he  receives  in  the 
manifold  organizations  or  institutions  which  are 
the  product  of  thought.  The  love  manifested 
in  the  beauty  and  goodness  of  woman,  is  the 
attractive  centre  to  the  wisdom  which  is  the  life 
of  the  masculine  understanding  ; and  vice  versd. 
This  is  the  spiritual  origin  of  sex,  love  and  mar- 
riage, which,  in  their  largest  sense,  are  of  ne- 
cessity universal  and  eternal. 

Woman  inspires  man  with  love,  because  she 
is  the  very  form  of  his  self-love  or  the  love  of 
his  own  wisdom.  Man  inspires  woman  with 
wisdom,  because  his  wisdom  is  the  magnet 
which  excites  the  activity  of  her  love. 

She  impregnates  him  with  love  which  quick- 
ens his  rationality,  and  ultimates  itself  through 
the  intellectual  faculties. 

He  impregnates  her  with  wisdom  which 
quickens  her  emotional  intuitions  and  percep- 
tions, and  ultimates  itself  through  the  affections. 

“ Her  rapid  mind  decides  while  his  debates; 

She  feels  a truth  which  he  but  calculates.” 

Woman  absorbs  the  masculine  forces  and 
brings  them  out  into  the  material  plane  of  life. 
Man  responds  to  the  excitation  of  the  feminine 


184  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

principle  by  ultimating  its  forces  on  the  spirit- 
ual or  mental  plane  of  life.  Thus  is  the  great 
spiritual  current  from  heaven  to  earth  and  back 
again  to  heaven,  established  by  means  of  the 
co-operating  influence  of  the  sexes.  Either 
sex  without  the  other,  would  be  as  useless  and 
lifeless  as  one  half  of  the  human  body  sepa- 
rated from  the  other.  Conjoined  in  heavenly 
marriage,  they  constitute  the  man  or  the  angel. 

Patmore  alludes  to  this  mystical  and  recipro- 
cal mental  action  of  the  sexes  on  each  other : 

“Love  kissed  by  wisdom  wakes  twice  love, 

And  wisdom  is  through  loving  wise.” 

That  woman  stimulates  the  intellectual  activ- 
ity of  man  by  the  love  with  which  she  inspires 
him,  is  written  on  every  page  of  the  public  and 
private  history  of  mankind.  Plan’s  wisdom 
comes  immediately  from  God ; woman’s  wis- 
dom comes  mediately  through  man.  Woman’s 
love  comes  immediately  from  God ; man’s  love 
comes  mediately  through  woman.  As  love  is 
the  centre  and  life  of  all  things,  and  as  wis- 
dom or  truth  is  determined  by  the  love  from 
which  it  springs,  woman  is  the  motor  ;pozvcr. 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  185 

j? 

while  man  is  the  organizing  power,  of  human 
life.  Woman  is  the  heart,  man  the  head,  of  the 
social  body  : woman  is  the  priest  of  the  world, 
if  man  is  its  king. 

The  grand  psychological  truth  involved  in 
the  above  paragraph,  is  sweetly  recognized  by 
a charming  English  poet : 

“ For  Love  is  substance,  Truth  the  form  ; 

Truth  without  Love  were  less  than  naught; 

But  blindest  Love  is  sweet  and  warm, 

And  full  of  Truth  not  shaped  bj  thought.” 

All  love,  therefore,  comes  from  woman  : all 
thoup-ht  comes  from  man.  Thought  flowing 

o O O 

from  the  man  into  the  woman,  becomes  feeling. 
Feeling  flowing  from  the  woman  into  the  man, 
becomes  thought.  This  idea  is  well  illustrated 
by  Dryden  in  his  poem  of  Cymon  and  Jphi- 
genia.  Cymon  was  a poor  stupid  creature 
whom  no  pains  or  labor  could  instruct  or  im- 
prove. He  one  day  found  the  beautiful  Iphi- 
genia  sleeping  in  the  woods,  and  a ray  of  love’s 
divine  ligfht  illumined  his  soul,  causing  his 
torpid  understanding  to  spring  into  sudden  ac- 
tivity. The  story  is  a true  symbol  of  a universal 
law. 


i86  The  Sexes ; Here  mid  Hereafter. 

“Through  the  rude  chaos  thus  the  running  light 
Shot  the  first  ray  that  pierced  the  native  night: 

So  reason  in  his  brutal  soul  began ; 

Love  made  him  first  suspect  he  was  a Man ; 

Love  made  him  doubt  his  broad  barbarian  sound; 

By  Love  his  want  of  words  and  wit  he  found : 

That  sense  of  want  prepared  the  future  way 
To  knowledge,  and  disclosed  the  promise  of  a day. 
What  not  his  father’s  care  nor  tutor’s  art 
Could  plant  with  pains  in  his  untutored  heart, 

That  best  instructor.  Love,  at  once  inspired. 

As  barren  grounds  to  fruitfulness  are  fired  : 

Love  taught  him  shame,  and  shame  with  Love  at  strife, 
Soon  taught  the  sweet  civilities  of  life.” 

Yes ; man  has  no  love,  no  passion,  no  senti- 
ment which  does  not  primarily  come  to  him 
from  woman.  Woman  alone  has  the  power 
of  drawing  the  divine  fire  down  from  heaven. 
The  mother,  the  first  love,  the  wife,  are  the 
sources  of  our  purest  and  best  inspirations  and 
wisest  thoughts.  And  from  the  w'hole  female 
sex  a vast  current  of  affection  pours  toward  the 
whole  male  sex,  inspiring  it  to  intellectual  ac- 
tivity, like  the  mighty  ocean  stream  which  bears 
the  tropical  heats  in  its  bosom,  and  causes  the 
bleakest  shores  of  the  North  to  brighten  and 
blossom  with  a life  not  their  own. 


spiritual  Differences  BeHveen  the  Sexes.  187 

In  the  wildest  mining  districts  of  California, 
and  in  communities  of  men  utterly  lawless  and 
desperate,  the  advent  of  a single  American 
woman,  unknown  to  nearly  all  of  them,  was 
a signal  for  the  decrease  of  violence  and  the 
dawn  of  peace  and  order  and  law ; while 
visions  of  home  and  happiness  and  flower- 
gardens  and  children,  of  books  and  music  and 
love,  of  schools  and  churches  and  heaven, 
arose  in  every  mind. 

“I  believe  if  I had  something  from  the  hands 
of  a woman,  I would  get  well,”  said  a dying 
English  soldier  in  a hospital  of  the  Crimea ; 
and  another  brave  fellow,  who  got  hold  of  the 
hand  of  one  of  Florence  Nightingale’s  nurses, 
grasped  it  tightly  in  silence  till  he  died  ! 

The  unhappy  and  licentious  Byron,  yearning 
on  his  deathbed  for  all  that  remained  to  him  of 
the  pure  and  the  good  in  woman,  exclaimed 
with  his  last  breath  : 

“Augusta  ! Ada  ! — my  sister  ! my  child  !” 

As  woman  alone  draws  love  down  from 
heaven  to  warm  the  world,  so  man  alone 
draws  down  wisdom  for  its  light  and  guidance. 
What  then  is  the  understanding  of  woman? 


1 88  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

A reflection  of  the  masculine  mind,  just  as  the 
light  of  the  moon  is  the  reflected  light  of  the 
sun.  Milton  speaks  wisely  of  the  sun  and 
moon  as 

“ Communicating  male  and  female  light.” 

The  intellect  of  woman  is  soft  and  tender, 
diflfeiing  from  that  of  man  as  the  sweet  face  of 
woman  does  from  the  sterner  features  of  the 
male  sex.  Woman,  by  the  intensity  and  purity 
of  her  love  for  man,  is  capable  of  absorbing  the 
whol®  of  his  wisdom,  so  that  she  shall  appear 
fully  equal  to  him  in  all  the  labors  of  the  un- 
derstanding. She  may  reach  the  higher  mas- 
culine standard  in  astronomy,  mathematics, 
science,  or  literature.  Still,  her  intellectual 
light  is  borrowed.  She  originates  nothing,  not 
even  in  the  composition  of  music,  in  which  her 
organization  would  lead  us  to  think  she  would 
excel.  The  office  of  her  intellect,  indeed,  is 
not  to  originate  or  organize,  but  to  utilize  or 
make  fruitful  in  her  own  field  the  stores  of  wis- 
dom which  man  has  acquired  in  his.  And 
here  we  detect  how  the  intellect  of  woman  is 
the  greatest  and  best  “ help  meet  for  him”  that 


Splrihial  Differences  Detween  the  Sexes.  1S9 

he  can  possibly  find.  Educate  woman  up  to 
the  masculine  standard  of  thought,  and  fire  her 
soul  with  the  love  of  God  and  the  neighbor,  of 
husband  and  children,  of  home  and  country, 
and  the  world  will  find  in  the  expression  of 
woman’s  opinion  on  every  subject  a new  foun- 
tain and  oracle  of  true  wisdom  hitherto  un- 
known. 

When  man  and  woman  love  purely  and  are 
truly  conjoined,  the  subtlest  combinations  of  the 
male  intellect  are  sometimes  futile  and  weak 
in  comparison  with  the  lightning^ike  wisdom 
which  emanates  from  the  feminine  brain, — a 
fact,  which  may  be  of  immense  importance 
to  the  future  of  human  society.  This  psy- 
chological truth  is  beautifully  illustrated  by 
Schiller  in  the  character  of  Thekla  in  his 
Wallenstein. 

When  Wallenstein  and  his  sister  are  weaving 
the  subtle  web  of  treason  about  the  young  Pic- 
colomini,  whose  frank  and  brave  nature  is  as 
incapable  of  suspicion  as  of  fear,  Thekla,  his 
betrothed,  visits  the  camp.  Her  intuitions, 
quickened  by  love,  immediately  perceive  the 
danger  his  intellect  has  not  detected ; and  the 


190  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

moment  they  are  alone  she  rushes  to  him,  ex- 
claiming, 

“ Do  not  trust  them  ! They  are  false !” 

When  the  fatal  step  is  taken,  the  exposure 
made,  and  Wallenstein  is  an  open  traitor  to  his 
emperor,  Piccolomini  still  lingers  in  the  camp, 
magnetically  attracted  by  his  love  for  Wallen- 
stein’s beautiful  daughter.  All  but  Thekla  en- 
deavor to  draw  him  over  to  the  revolt.  They 
ply  him  with  persuasions  and  powerful  argu- 
ments. His  reason  staggers,  blinded  by  love. 
Suddenly  he  appeals  to  Thekla  to  think  for 
him,  to  decide  for  him.  He  leaves  the  whole 
matter  “to  the  unerring  good  within  her  heart.” 
To  the  rage  of  her  friends  and  the  despair  of 
her  lover,  she  sublimely  sacrifices  their  hopes 
and  interests,  and  counsels  him  to  the  path  of 
duty  and  honor : 

“ Being  faithful 

To  thine  own  self,  thou  art  faithful,  too,  to  me. 

If  our  fates  part,  our  souls  remain  united. 

A bloody  hatred  may  divide  forever 
Our  houses,  Piccolomini  and  Friedland, 

But  we  belong  not  to  our  houses.  Go!” 

It  may  be  asked.  How  is  man  the  organ  or 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Setces.  19 1 

medium  of  the  divine  wisdom,  if  his  own  wis- 
dom is  determined  by  the  inspiring  love  of 
woman?  In  spiritual  and  natural  things  alike, 
conditions  determine  development.  Sunlight 
cannot  create  flowers  or  fruit  until  seeds  are 
properly  planted.  Thought  is  impossible  until 
the  aflections  are  awakened.  The  distinctive 
peculiarity  of  the  male  mind  is,  that  man’s 
affection,  awakened  by  woman’s  influence,  is 
impregnated  by  the  inflowing  divine  wisdom, 
producing  all  the  resplendent  phenomena  of  the 
intellectual  or  rational  sphere.  The  love  of 
man’s  achievements  is  the  heart-life  of  woman  ; 
and  that,  impregnated  by  the  Divine  Love,  is 
the  source  of  her  intuitive  wisdom,  her  beauty, 
and  her  grand  capacity  for  offices  of  self-sacri- 
flce,  love,  and  use. 

In  the  presence  of  these  fundamental  laws  of 
our  spiritual  being  revealed  by  Swedenborg,  it 
is  entirely  useless  to  discuss  the  common  ques- 
tion of  the  equality  or  inequality  of  the  mental 
and  moral  powers  of  the  sexes.  Man  is  at 
present  inferior  to  woman  on  the  moral  and 
woman  is  inferior  to  man  on  the  intellectual 
plane,  simply  because  the  sexes,  as  the  two 


1^2  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereayter. 

great  halves  of  our  spiritual  life,  are  not  con- 
joined in  the  heavenly  marriage.  Woman  is 
capable  of  absorbing  and  reflecting  the  entire 
understanding  of  man,  so  that  her  intellectual 
faculties  shall  be  identical  with  his.  Man  is 
capable  of  rising  to  the  loftiest  height  of  wo- 
man’s love.  Nothing,  however,  but  the  uni- 
versality of  marriage  can  accomplish  such  a 
glorious  equalit}'-,  and  that  kind  of  marriage 
in  which  each  sex  receives  in  perfect  measure 
all  the  other  has  to  give,  so  that  they  become, 
in  the  no  longer  m^^stical  words  of  the  Bible, 
one  jlesh. 

This  mutual,  organic,  inevitable,  beautiful 
dependence  of  the  sexes  on  each  other  for  the 
manifestation  of  their  peculiar  properties,  mak- 
ing co-operation  and  marriage  necessar}^  here 
and  hereafter,  overturns  the  prevalent  theories 
of  sex  and  marriage,  and  leads  to  a higher 
philosophy  which  will  solve  the  mysteries  of 
beauty  and  love  and  define  the  sphere  and  duty 
of  both  man  and  woman. 

From  the  universality  of  sex,  or  the  bi-sexual 
character  of  all  the  forms  in  nature,  and  from 
the  fact  that  spiritual  truths  are  always  pic- 


spiritual  Differences  BetweeJi  the  Sexes.  193 

tured  in  natural  laws,  we  may  arrive  at  the  fol- 
lowing important  conclusions  in  our  pursuit  of 
truth  : 

The  excitation  of  one  species  of  electricity  is 
always  accompanied  by  the  excitation  of  the 
other,  both  being  produced  in  equal  degrees. 
This  is  true  also  of  love  and  wisdom,  or  affection 
and  thought,  the  spiritual  electricities  of  our  life. 
Given  the  state  of  wisdom  in  man,  and  you 
have  the  exact  measure  of  the  state  of  love  in 
woman  ; and  vice  versd.  Every  augmentation 
of  woman’s  love  increases  the  wisdom  of  man  ; 
which  suggests  the  true  sphere  of  woman,  and 
the  true  method  of  moving,  reforming,  and 
spiritualizing  the  world. 

As  the  strength  of  the  magnet  depends  upon 
the  intensity  of  the  two  opposite  poles,  so  the 
perfection  of  human  character  d-epends  upon 
the  distinct  rationality  or  masculinity  of  man, 
and  the  distinct  emotional  activity  or  femininity 
of  woman. 

Like  the  two  poles  of  a magnetic  bar,  man 
and  woman  are  the  mutual  sustainers  of  each 
other’s  condition ; he  of  her  love,  she  of  his 
wisdom.  Man  grows  more  truly  rational  and 

13  R 


194  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

masculine,  as  woman  grows  more  truly  fem- 
inine. 

If  man  grows  more  effeminate  and  woman 
more  masculine,  they  both  lose  the  proper  in- 
fluence they  should  exert  on  each  other,  because 
each  sexual  pole  of  life  is  weakenedby  the  other. 

The  nearer  they  approach  each  other  in 
quality  and  pursuit,  not  by  reflecting  but  by 
rivaling  each  other,  the  less  will  be  the  recip- 
rocal attraction  betw'een  them. 

If  the  distinctive  spiritual  characteristics  of 
the  sexes  could  be  destroyed,  they  would  cease 
to  respect  the  chastity  or  honor  of  each  other ; 
spirituality  of  thought  and  motive  would  be- 
come impossible,  and  man  w'ould  sink  to  the 
level  of  the  brute. 

These  are  great  and  eternal  truths,  which 
might  be  scientifically  demonstrated  and  con- 
firmed by  countless  illustrations  from  human 
experience  and  history.  Let  them  serve  as 
beacon-liffhts  to  those  earnest  and  darincr  souls 

O O 

who  are  striving  to  reconstruct  the  soqial  fabric 
upon  principles  derived  from  the  supposed  light 
of  nature,  and  not  always  illumined  by  the 
superior  light  of  spiritual  truth. 


spiritual  Differences  Detween  the  Sexes.  195 

The  inspiration  of  the  poet  is  ever  in  har- 
mony with  the  wisdom  of  the  Seer  : 

“For  woman  is  not  undeveloped  man, 

But  diverse : could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 

Sweet  Love  were  slain  : his  dearest  bond  is  this. 

Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference  : 

Yet  in  the  long  3'ears  liker  must  they  grow.” 

If  man  and  woman  were  equal  and  alike ; 
if  their  wills  and  understandings  had  no  dif- 
ferences but  such  as  exist  between  parties  of 
the  same  sex ; then  the  spiritual  marriage  or 
absolute  union  of  two  souls  would  be  impossi- 
ble. No  such  union  can  exist  between  two 
men,  or  between  two  women.  It  is  only  possi- 
ble between  the  sexes,  because  they  are  unequal 
and  unlike ; because  man  derives  his  wisdom 
from  God  and  his  love  mediately  from  woman, 
while  woman  derives  her  love  from  God  and 
her  wisdom  mediately  from  man.  This  is  the 
grandest  psychological  truth  ever  revealed  to 
the  world. 

All  life  flows  from  the  spiritual  world  into  the 
natural.  All  love,  all  wisdom,  all  our  affections 
and  thoughts,  come  down  from  the  interior. 
Wiman  is  the  organ  or  medium  for  the  descent 


196  The  Sexes ^ Here  and  Hereafter. 

of  the  divine  love.  Man  is  the  organ  or 
medium  for  the  descent  of  the  divine  wisdom. 
The  love  which  woman  acquires  from  above,  is 
reflected  over  to  man.  The  wisdom  which  man 
by  means  of  that  love  acquires  from  above,  is  re- 
flected over  to  woman.  The  correspondence  and 
attraction  between  the  love  and  wisdom  thus  ac- 
quired by  the  co-operation  of  the  two  sexes,  is 
the  basis  of  the  spiritual  or  heavenly  marriage. 

Now  how  is  the  actual  amount  of  love  in  the 
world  increased?  or  what  is  the  special  office 
of  woman?  And  how  is  the  actual  amount  of 
wisdom  in  the  world  increased?  or  what  is  the 
special  office  of  man? 

As  there  is  no  wisdom  without  love,  so  there 
is  no  love  without  obedience.  Obedience,  or 
living  according  to  the  divine  law,  is  the  means 
whereby  love  and  wisdom  are  brought  down  to 
us.  We  become  truly  wise  only  by  keeping 
the  commandments.  The  mind  cannot  be  per- 
manently illumined  until  the  heart  is  purified. 
Obedience  was  properly  made  the  test  of  the 
possibility  of  such  a spiritual  life  as  that  signi- 
fied by  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Disobedience 
brought  sensuality,  blindness,  spiritual  death. 


Sph'itual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  197 

It  is  the  obedience  of  woman  to  the  divine  law, 
which  brings  down  the  heaven  of  love  to  the 
world.  It  is  the  obedience  of  man  to  the  divine 
law,  which  brings  down  the  heaven  of  wisdom 
to  the  world.  Thus  the  work  of  each  sex  is 
complementary  to  that  of  the  other.  It  is  only 
when  they  co-operate  or  act  in  harmony,  that 
true  love  and  true  wisdom  can  be  obtained. 

The  sphere  of  man’s  labor  is  evidently  the 
sphere  of  the  understanding,  beginning  from 
without  and  working  upward  and  inwai'd.  The 
sphere  of  woman’s  labor  is  the  sphere  of  the 
affections,  beginning  within  and  working  down- 
ward and  outward.  Woman’s  love  is  super- 
sensuous  ; man’s  love  is  sensuous  until  spirit- 
ualized by  woman.  Man’s  understanding  is 
rational  and  inductive  ; woman’s  understanding 
is  intuitive  and  deductive,  because  it  is  only 
man’s  understanding  raised  to  a higher  or  spir- 
itual power.  Man’s  forces  are  centripetal,  wo- 
man’s are  centrifucral.  The  masculine  ascends 

o 

'.he  ladder  of  Jacob  to  heaven,  but  the  feminine 
descends  it  with  blessings  for  mankind. 

Man’s  labor  is  in  the  field  of  the  senses.  He 
examines,  compares,  discovers,  invents.  He 


£98  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

conquers  nature,  and  the  material  is  to  him  the 
real.  He  tills,  plants,  reaps,  builds,  travels, 
creates.  Science,  literature,  art,  philosophy, 
manufactures,  governments,  churches,  institu- 
tions, are  the  products  of  his  strength  and  wis- 
dom, the  fruits  of  his  organizing  mind ; and 
all  these  he  lays  at  the  feet  of  woman — the 
silent,  secret,  unseen  motor  power  of  all  his 
goodness  and  wisdom  and  courage  and  labor. 

Woman  works  in  a far  more  interior  sphere. 
To  her  sweet  intuitions  the  spiritual  is  real  and 
supereminent.  She  alone  saw  the  angels  at 
the  sepulchre  of  the  Lord.  She  repa3  s man 
for  his  benefits  by  bringing  down  into  nature 
the  ideal  light  and  beauty  of  an  inner  world. 
She  conquers  man,  not  nature  ; and  her  weapon 
is  not  the  strength  of  reason,  but  the  inspiration 
of  love.  She  inspires  him  with  that  tender 
sentiment  which  stimulates  him  to  new  thought, 
new  wisdom,  new  power.  She  etherealizes  and 
spiritualizes  all  about  him.  She  blesses  him, 
elevates  him,  purifies  him.  She  gives  him  love 
which  is  her  dower  from  God,  and  home  which 
IS  the  image  of  heaven. 

The  words  wife  and  mother  express  the 


spiritual  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  199 

whole  nature,  functions,  uses,  and  life  of  wo- 
man. No  education,  training,  business,  or  in- 
fluences, which  do  not  help  to  qualify  woman 
for  these  sublime  offices,  are  of  any  permanent 
value.  These  words,  wife  and  mother,  so  full 
of  tenderness  and  beauty,  have  a spiritual  as 
well  as  a natural  meaning.  Nature  designed 
that  every  woman  should  be  a wife  and  mother 
in  both  senses ; but  the  evils  of  our  imperfect 
civilization  leave  many  a virgin  rose  to  wither 
on  the  thorn.  Those  women  are  spiritually 
wives  and  mothers,  whether  externally  and 
legally  married  or  not,  who  absorb  from  the 
masculine  element  of  thought  in  books,  in 
conversation,  in  society,  in  practical  life,  in 
religion,  the  subtile  forces  of  wisdom  which 
enrich  their  own  souls  with  grand  intuitions, 
beautify  their  characters  and  faces  with  wifely 
and  maternal  purity,  modesty,  and  humility, 
and  produce  around  them  a crowd  of  radiant 
influences,  sympathies,  divinations  of  love,  and 
unconscious  charities,  which  are  the  children 
of  the  spiritual  marriage. 

Woman's  work  is  within.  What  is  external 
in  man  is  internal  in  woman.  Organically, 


200  The  Sexes',  Here  and  Hereafter. 


mentally,  socially,  spiritually,  she  is  more  in- 
terior than  man.  She  herself  is  an  interior 
part  of  man,  and  her  love  and  life  are  always 
something  interior  and  almost  incomprehensi- 
ble to  him.  He  never  understands  woman  as 
woman  understands  him.  The  man’s  thoucrht 

o 

reverts  occasionally,  or  it  may  be  frequently, 
to  wife  and  child.  The  woman’s  thought 
stands  always  like  an  invisible  angel  by  the 
side  of  husband  and  child  wherever  they  may 
be.  She  is  the  unseen  Ariel  who  creates  all 
the  sweet  and  mysterious  music  which  leads  us 
out  of  the  dark  and  thorny  places  of  life.  “O 
woman !”  exclaims  Michelet,  “ fragile  globe 
of  incomparable  alabaster,  wherein  burns  the 
lamp  of  God.” 

In  the  old  world  and  the  old  times,  w'hen 
everything  was  symbolic,  this  interiority  of 
wmman  was  represented  by  the  large  mantle  in 
wdiich  the  bride  was  concealed  when  presented 
to  the  husband.  It  w^as  by  this  means  that 
Jacob  was  deceived,  and  Leah  substituted  for 
Rebecca.  The  modern  veil  is  the  last  vestige 
of  this  concealment.  The  strict  seclusion  of 
the  Oriental  woman,  the  flowing,  concealing 


Spirittial  Differences  Between  the  Sexes.  201 

dress  of  the  sex,  the  scriptural  command  that 
woman  should  not  go  with  the  head  uncovered, 
nor  speak  in  public  assemblies,  have  their 
origin  in  a spiritual  recognition  of  the  essential 
interiority  of  woman. 

For  the  same  reason  the  sphere  of  woman’s 
power  is  the  house,  the  chamber,  the  closet, 
and  not  the  street,  the  field,  the  forum,  the  mar- 
ket-place,— the  common  theatres  of  masculine 
activity.  Woman  is  to  deal  with  domestic  af- 
fections and  uses,  not  with  philosophies  and 
sciences.  She  is  the  form  of  charity,  not  of 
faith.  She  is  priest,  not  king.  The  house, 
the  chamber,  the  closet,  are  the  centres  of  all 
social  life  and  power,  as  surely  as  the  sun  is 
the  centre  of  the  solar  system.  Woman  occu- 
pies already  the  precise  point  from  which  she 
can  move  the  world.  She  needs  only  the  lever, 
which  is  the  knowledge  of  the  right  method  of 
doing  it. 

Another  proof  of  the  interiority  of  woman,  is 
the  wonderful  secretiveness  and  power  of  dis- 
simulation which  she  possesses.  These  words 
applied  to  woman’s  character,  have  a good 
meaning  very  different  from  the  usual  meaning 


202  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

attached  to  them.  Woman’s  secresy  is  not 
cunning  ; her  dissimulation  is  not  fraud.  They 
are  intuitions  or  spiritual  perceptions,  full  of 
tact  and  wisdom,  leading  her  to  conceal  or 
reveal,  to  speak  or  be  silent,  to  do  or  not  to  do, 
exactly  at  the  right  time  and  in  the  right  place. 
A type  of  woman’s  beautiful  dissimulation  is 
seen  in  the  mother  of  Moses,  who  carried  her 
point  with  great  ingenuity,  concealing  her  child 
from  his  cruel  enemies ; and,  what  was  still 
more  difficult,  concealing  her  own  gushing  joy- 
ous maternity  from  the  Egyptian  princess. 

A charming  English  poet,  describing  the 
secret  and  wonderful  power  of  a true  woman 
to  elevate  and  purify  the  man  she  loves,  thus 
sings  : 

“ Without  his  knowledge  he  was  won. 

Against  his  nature  kept  devout; 

She’ll  never  tell  him  how  ’twas  done, 

And  he  will  never  find  it  out. 

If,  sudden,  he  suspects  her  wiles. 

And  hears  her  forging  chain  and  trap. 

And  looks;  she  sits  in  simple  smiles, 

Her^'o  hands  lying  in  her  lap!” 


Such  are  the  spiritual  differences  between 
man  and  woman,  on  wffiich  must  be  based  a true 


spiritual  Differences  Betweeti  the  Sexes.  303 

philosophy  of  sex.  Eminent  service  will  these 
doctrines  render  to  those  who  study  the  spiritual 
uses  of  marriage,  the  causes  and  effects  of  the 
perversion  of  the  love-principle  or  of  false  mar- 
riages, and  the  means  whereby  may  be  inau- 
gurated a new  and  better  civilization,  in  which 
woman,  as  love  married  to  wisdom,  or  charity 
conjoined  with  faith,  shall  share  with  man  the 
government,  the  glory,  and  the  happiness  of  “a 
new  earth,”  fitted  by  their  united  efforts  for 
communication  with  the  “ new  heaven.” 

In  all  we  have  said  thus  far,  we  have  had 
onl}^  good  men  and  women  in  our  mind’s  eye. 
There  is  a dark  reverse  to  our  bright  picture ; 
opposite  forms,  but  governed  by  the  same  laws. 
Instead  of  good,  there  is  evil ; instead  of  the 
true,  there  is  the  untrue ; instead  of  heat,  cold ; 
instead  of  light,  darkness.  There  are  men 
who  bi'eathe  upon  women  only  the  sensual  and 
the  false.  There  are  women  “ whose  cham- 
bers are  the  gates  of  death,  and  whose  steps 
lead  down  to  hell.” 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SPIRITUAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  LOVE  AND 
BEAUTY. 

YOUTH  1 beautiful,  tender,  enchant- 
ing aurora  of  life ! happy  transition 
period  between  the  child  and  the  man  ! 
What  soul  from  whose  hearing 

“ The  horns  of  Elfland,  faintly  blowing,” 

have  not  died  away  for  ever,  can  forget  its 
sweet  illusions,  its  wild  ambitions,  its  incom- 
municable longings,  its  transport  and  its  tears? 

“Tears  from  the  depths  of  some  divine  despair!” 

The  wonderful  secret  of  all  this,  is  love. 
God  created  woman  to  be  a form  of  love. 
At  the  age  of  puberty  the  magnetic  forces  of 
the  sexes  begin  reciprocally  to  excite  and  at- 
tract each  other.  Up  to  that  period,  the  boy 
and  girl  are  almost  undistinguishable  in  form 
and  feature ; then  they  separate, — separate, 

204 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  a7id  Beaicty.  205 

however,  only  to  be  drawn  together  again  by 
irresistible  powers,  and  reunited  for  ever. 

The  astonishing  changes  which  take  place 
in  the  physical  and  moral  systems  of  both 
sexes  at  this  period,  are  explained  by  the  doc- 
trines advanced  in  the  preceding  chapter.  Like 
flowers  which  have  different  affinities  for  the 
heat  and  light  of  the  sun,  the  feminine  life 
awakens  into  activity  at  the  touch  of  the  Divine 
Love,  and  the  masculine  life  at  the  touch  of 
the  Divine  Wisdom.  The  feminine  principle, 
secretly  inspired  by  the  tenderest  love,  clothes 
itself  with  beauty  in  which  the  corresponding 
masculine  intellect  can  see  its  own  interior  wds- 
dom  portrayed  and  reflected  as  in  a magical 
mirror. 

Therefore  the  phenomena  of  woman’s  devel- 
opment which  differentiate  her  from  man,  lie  in 
the  plane  of  love  or  the  emotional  sphere ; and 
the  phenomena  of  man’s  development  which  dif- 
ferentiate him  from  woman,  lie  in  the  plane  of 
the  understanding  or  the  intellectual  sphere. 

This  law  is  represented  in  the  body  of  each 
sex  by  specific  changes.  The  changes  in 

woman  belong  to  the  interior,  those  in  man,  to 
s 


2o6  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 


the  exterior,  organic  forms.  In  woman  they 
attach  to  the  blood-system,  of  which  the  heart, 
the  great  representative  of  the  emotional  life, 
is  the  centre.  In  man  they  attach  to  the  res- 
piratory S3'stem,  for  the  lungs  reflect  and  ulti- 
mate by  speech  the  intellectual  life  of  the  brain. 
The  interior  periodic  changes  in  woman,  an- 
nounce her  preparation  for  a love  more  spiritual 
and  super-sensuous  than  that  of  man,  and  for 
the  holy  offices  of  wifehood  and  maternity. 
The  change  of  voice  in  man  and  the  growth  of 
muscle  and  beard,  proclaim  the  development  of 
wisdom,  courage,  power,  and  “ the  wrestling 
thews  that  throw  the  world.” 

Inspired  by  the  love  of  wisdom  or  know- 
ledge, the  masculine  understanding  early  as- 
serts itself  and  betra3's  its  spiritual  affinities. 
What  earnest  pursuit,  what  abstraction,  what 
passionate  study,  what  lofty  ambition,  what 
hope,  what  audacity  ! Imagination  lends  wings 
to  desire,  and  the  dreams  of  the  3'outh  are  pro- 
phecies of  the  man.  The  3’oung  statesman 
declaims  to  applauding  senates  which  hj^'e 
never  assembled,  and  the  poet  who  has  not  3'et 
sung,  listens  to  his  songs  as  the3’^  echo  round 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  207 


the  world.  The  coming  soldier  steps  to  in- 
audible drums,  and  the  born  sailor  hears  in  his 
inland  solitude  the  music  of  the  sea. 

How  different  the  evolution  of  woman’s  na- 
ture ! The  bloom  of  a new  loveliness  comes  over 
her  face.  The  charm  of  a new  elegance  like  a 
spiritual  drapery  envelops  her  form.  Startled  at 
her  own  dawning  beauties  which  make  her  the 
centre  of  attraction,  she  retires,  self-conscious, 
into  herself  with  bashful  timidity.  She  trem- 
bles, “like  a guilty  thing  surprised,”  at  the 
unfoldings  of  nature  in  herself  and  others. 
What  charming  apprehensions,  what  grace, 
what  sweet  dependence,  what  affection,  what 
passion,  what  caprices,  what  tender  inquietudes, 
what  brooding  fancies  ! 

— “And  hopes,  and  fears  that  kindle  hope, 

An  undistinguishable  throng!” 


— all  foreshadowing  the  development  of  a 
moral  and  emotional  medium  or  organ  of  the 
Divine  Love;  the  bride  of  wisdom,  the  rose  of 
joy,  the  pearl  of  innocence,  the  light,  the  life, 
the  wonder  of  the  world. 

Then  it  is  that  the  two  angels  of  youth. 


2o8  The  Sexes',  Here  aiid  Hereafter. 

Honor  and  Chastity,  male  and  female,  appear 
with  their  flaming  swords  to  guard  the  sacred 
gates  which  enclose  the  tree  of  life.  Chastity 
is  the  purity  and  innocence  of  love,  and  mod- 
esty is  her  inevitable  handmaid.  Honor  is 
loyalty  to  truth  and  principle,  and  courage  is 
his  noble  shield-bearer.  Chastity  belongs  to 
the  heart  and  the  will ; Honor  to  the  under- 
standing and  the  thought.-  The  gender  of 
these  virtues  is  the  reason  why  we  speak  of 
the  honor  of  man  and  the  chastity  of  woman 
as  the  priceless  pearls  of  a high  civilization. 

Love  radiating  from  its  divine  source, 
changes  its  manifestation  according  to  the  forms 
into  which  it  flows.  In  the  highest  or  celestial 
sphere,  nearest  to  the  Lord,  it  is  the  celestial 
love  of  the  angels.  In  the  next  inferior  sphere, 
it  is  spiritual  love.  Lower  still,  it  is  the  natural 
love  of  the  sex  with  man.  Below  the  rational 
sphere,  it  is  simply  animal  or  corporeal.  Di- 
vested of  sentiment,  it  becomes  a mere  passion. 
Farther  down  the  ladder  of  nature,  it  is  the 
sympathy  of  plants,  the  attraction  of  metals,  the 
gravitation  of  atoms, — love  being  the  life  and 
soul  of  all  things  from  the  greatest  to  the  least. 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  209 

Woman  is  a bundle  of  loves  which  determine 
her  thought.  Man  is  a bundle  of  thoughts 
which  determine  his  love.  As  every  chemical 
element  in  nature  has  specific  affinities  for  cer- 
tain other  elements,  so  every  constituent  of  the 
masculine  soul  has  its  fixed  affinity  for  some  cor- 
responding constituent  in  the  feminine  soul. 
The  elemental  forms  of  our  interior  minds  are 
forever  striving  after  union  with  their  sexual 
counterparts.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  love  of 
the  sex,  or  the  mutual  and  reciprocal  passional 
attraction  between  man  and  woman.  Thence 
come  all  the  activities  of  life. 

Woman  is  attracted  to  man  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  those  forms  and  qualities  which  flow 
from  the  operation  of  wisdom  or  truth  in  the 
masculine  soul.  A woman  may  marry  from 
any  motive, — external,  inadequate,  and  even 
base ; but  she  never  loves  a man  unless  he  is 
wise,  brave,  strong,  just,  or  capable,  in  her  eyes. 
She  does  not  care  for  beauty  in  him  ; because 
she  wishes  that  for  herself,  so  that  she  can  be- 
stow it  upon  him  in  exchange  for  the  protection, 
the  power,  the  dignity,  the  organizing  and  ex- 
ecutive genius  of  the  masculine  life. 

14  S » 


210  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

Man  is  attracted  to  woman  by  that  beauty 
which  is  the  symbol  or  hierogl3'ph  of  his  own 
most  secret  thought.  Her  grace  of  movement, 
symmetry,  softness  and  elegance  of  form,  her 
sweetness  of  manner,  vivacity  of  intellect,  or 
tenderness  of  sentiment,  strike  the  hidden  and 
sympathetic  cords  in  some  masculine  soul, 
which  thus  sees  its  counterpart  or  other  self 
revealed  to  it  in  a manner  incomprehensible  to 
all  other  souls. 

“ He  meets,  bj'  heavenly  chance  express, 

His  destined  wife:  some  hidden  hand 
Unveils  to  him  that  loveliness 

Which  others  cannot  understand.” 

Each  masculine  or  feminine  soul  has  its  or- 
ganic peculiarities  which  differentiate  it  from  all 
others,  as  each  face  differs  from  all  other  faces. 
Add  to  this,  that  each  soul  finds  its  correspond- 
ing complement  in  the  other  sex,  and  we  see 
how  the  love  of  the  sex  has  a constant  tendency 
to  terminate  and  resolve  itself  into  a love  of  but 
one  of  the  sex.  This  is  the  natural  cause  of 
marriage  as  an  institution,  which,  by  civil  and 
religious  sanction,  enables  us  to  secure  and 
retain  sole  possession  of  the  object  of  our  love. 


spiritual  Philosophy  oj'  Love  and  Beauty.  211 

“ Marriage,”  says  Jeremy  Taylor,  “ is  the 
mother  of  the  world ; and  preserves  kingdoms 
and  fills  cities  and  churches,  and  even  heaven 
itself.” 

Of  this  reciprocal  influence  of  the  sexes,  this 
tender  passion,  the  sweetest  bond  of  social  life 
and  the  inspiration  of  poetry  and  art,  Emerson 
beautifully  observes : 

“A  private  and  tender  relation  of  one  to  one 
is  the  enchantment  of  human  life,  which,  like 
a certain  divine  rage  or  enthusiasm,  seizes  on 
man  at  one  period,  and  works  a revolution  in 
mind  and  body  ; unites  him  to  his  race  ; pledges 
him  to  the  domestic  and  civic  relations ; carries 
him  with  new  sympathy  into  nature  ; enhances 
the  power  of  the  senses ; opens  the  imaginar- 
tion ; adds  to  his  character  heroic  and  sacred 
attributes ; establishes  marriage,  and  gives  per- 
manence to  human  society.” 

It  is  needless  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  by 
brilliant  writers  on  the  nature  of  love.  Every- 
thing hitherto  advanced  on  the  subject,  relates 
only  to  the  passional  attraction  between  man 
and  woman  in  the  natural  life.  Neither  poets  nor 
divines  have  obtained  more  than  a glimpse  of 


212  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter, 

that  spiritual  love  between  the  sexes,  which  is 
the  theme  and  life  of  Swedenborg’s  philosophy. 
Its  quality,  even  its  existence,  is  unknown.  It  is 
claimed  for  it  that  it  was  revealed  from  heaven  ; 
and  certainly  it  has  no  counterpart  in  the  spec- 
ulations of  any  mundane  philosopher.  It  is  the 
key  to  the  doctrine  of  marriage  in  heaven.  It 
is  so  novel,  transcending  so  far  the  usual  level 
of  human  study  and  thought,  that  it  has  been 
superficially  examined,  and  greatly  misrepre- 
sented. It  deserves  a thorough  consideration. 

Swedenborg,  raising  love  to  a higher  power 
or  spiritual  degree,  discards  the  word  conjugal, 
which  implies  being  yoked  together,  and  sub- 
stitutes conjugial,  which  means  united.  The 
conjugial  love  of  Swedenborg  is  something 
more  than  the  natural  love  between  husband 
and  wife.  No  purit}^,  fidelity,  or  intensity  of 
affection,  can  of  itself  elevate  the  natural  love 
of  the  sex  to  the  spiritual  or  conjugial  love 
which  is  the  bond  of  wedded  souls  in  heaven. 
The  most  wicked  men  and  women  are  some- 
times capable  of  the  most  romantic  passion,  the 
most  extreme  devotion  to  the  object  of  their 
love.  And  Swedenborg  declares  that  the  dead- 


spiritual  Philosophy  oj"  Love  and  Beauty.  213 

liest  hatred  may  lie  concealed  underneath  such 
affectionate  exteriors,  beyond  the  consciousness 
of  both  parties,  only  to  be  revealed  by  death 
and  the  judgment. 

Conjugial  love  does  not  grow  out  of  the  nat- 
ural love  of  the  sexes  for  each  other,  but  may 
be  inserted  into  it  like  a gem  in  its  matrix,  or 
the  soul  in  its  body.  Man  is  created  an  image 
of  God,  a finite  form  of  heaven,  and  contains 
all  the  degrees  of  life  in  his  own  organization. 
He  is  born,  however,  only  into  the  lowest  or 
sensuous  and  corporeal  degree.  The  higher 
degrees, — the  rational,  spiritual,  and  celestial, 
— may  be  successively  opened  in  him  by  a life 
according  to  the  commandments,  which  makes 
him  receptive  of  the  life  of  heaven.  So  long 
as  he  lives  in  the  sensuous  degree,  he  is  only 
capable  of  sensual  love.  When  he  becomes 
rational,  his  love  is  imbued  with  rational  life. 
Only  as  he  has  the  spiritual  or  celestial  degrees 
opened  within  him,  can  he  be  animated  by 
spiritual  or  celestial  love. 

The  love  of  the  sex  belongs  to  the  external 
or  natural  man.  Conjugial  love  belongs  to  the 
internal  or  spiritual  man.  Only  the  regenerate, 


214  The  Sexes,'  He7'e  and  Hereayter. 

— only  the  angels  understand  or  fully  enjoy  the 
conjugial  love  ; and  man  enters  into  a percep- 
tion of  its  delights,  only  as  he  advances  in 
regeneration  and  becomes  more  and  more  like 
the  angels.  The  spiritual  degree  is  opened  by 
a life  of  good  works  in  obedience  to  the  Divine 
Word.  Just  as  that  degree  is  opened,  is  the 
conjugial  principle  developed  in  the  heart, 
whether  the  person  be  externally  married  or 
not ; and  the  soul  is  becoming  fitted  for  its  eter- 
nal marriage  with  its  mate  in  some  angelic 
society. 

A regenerate  soul  is  one  who  has  experienced 
the  heavenly  marriage  between  his  own  puri- 
fied will  and  enlightened  understanding,  so 
that  faith  ajid  charity  are  perfectly  wedded  in 
his  nature  for  the  production  of  good  works. 
Such  a regenerate  soul,  when  masculine,  is  a 
certain  finite  image  of  the  Divine  Wisdom. 
Such  a regenerate  soul,  if  feminine,  is  a cer- 
tain image  of  the  Divine  Love.  The  union 
between  the  Divine  Love  and  the  Divine  Wis- 
dom, which  makes  the  Father  and  Son  one 
Divine  Being,  flowing  into  these  regenerate 
souls,  draws  them  into  a spiritual  union, — the 


Sph'itual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  215 

two  together  making  one  holy  angel,  or  image 
and  likeness  of  God. 

Such  is  the  conjugial  love  which  makes  not 
only  possible,  but  probable  and  rational,  the 
wonderful  descriptions  of  married  pairs  whom 
Swedenborg  asserts  that  he  saw  in  heaven. 

In  our  feeble  and  imperfect  state,  so  remote 
from  the  realization  of  such  glorious  ideals,  we 
can  scarcely  form  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  conjugial  love.  Swedenborg  declares  it  to 
be  the  parent  and  fountain  of  all  other  loves 
both  spiritual  and  natural.  It  is  full  of  inno- 
cence, wisdom,  peace,  and  blessedness ; and 
its  exquisite  delights  are  so  superior  to  any- 
thing that  springs  from  a merely  natural  rela- 
tion, that  they  are  inconceivable  to  the  sensual 
man. 

It  is  taught  by  Swedenborg  that  woman  alone 
derives  the  conjugial  love  and  the  love  of  the 
sex  from  the  Lord,  and  imparts  them  to  man. 
It  seems  to  man  that  his  affections  arise  spon- 
taneously in  himself,  and  to  woman  that  her 
thoughts  or  ideas  are  unquestionably  her  own. 
But  it  is  not  so.  If  the  whole  masculine  sphere 
were  withdrawn  from  woman,  she  would  be  in- 


2i6  The  Sexes;  Here  a7id  Hereafter. 

capable  of  thinking  at  all.  If  the  whole  fem- 
inine sphere  were  withdrawn  from  man,  he 
would  have  no  emotional  life  whatever.  Swe- 
denborg says  the  latter  experiment  was  tried 
with  some  spirits  in  the  spiritual  world,  and  the 
result  convinced  them  that  woman  is  the  organ 
or  medium  through  whom  the  Divine  Love  is 
brought  down  to  the  various  degrees  of  life. 

The  love  with  which  man  is  first  inspired  by 
woman,  has  something  in  it  especially  tender 
and  charming.  We  attribute  the  romantic  sen- 
timent of  early  love  to  the  ardent  imagination 
of  youth,  unchastened  as  yet  by  the  severe  dis- 
cipline of  life.  It  comes  rather  from  the  influx 
of  angelic  spheres  redolent  with  the  conjugial 
life  of  heaven.  Celestial  angels  are  very  near 
us  in  infancy,  and  spiritual  angels  in  youth  ; 
and  when  woman  inspires  us  with  our  first  love, 
our  guardian  friends  endeavor  to  implant  the 
conjugial  principle  in  the  embryonic  forms  of 
sexual  attachment.  Hence  the  ineffable  charm 
and  freshness  and  beauty  and  glory  of  “ love’s 
young  dream !” 

By  a selfish,  worldly,  and  ambitious  life,  un- 
blessed by  noble  resolves  or  spiritual  aspira- 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  217 

tions,  we  close  the  interior  of  our  minds  to 
heavenly  influences,  and  our  subsequent  love 
of  woman  becomes  more  and  more  external 
and  sensual.  At  last  the  cold  and  selfish  natu- 
ralist scoffs  at  the  idea  of  a purely  spiritual  love 
of  woman,  as  a theological  fiction  or  a poet’s 
dream.  In  proportion,  however,  as  our  love 
for  woman  retains  a chaste,  tender  and  rever- 
ential spirit,  do  we  preserve  the  conjugial 
principle  in  our  hearts — that  shekinah  reveal- 
ing the  Divine  presence, — and  retain  the  possi- 
bility of  becoming  like  the  angels  of  God,  who 
have  achieved  the  spiidtual  resurrection  and 
attained  to  the  heavenly  marriage. 

This  tender,  unselfish,  super-sensuous  attrac- 
tion between  two  souls,  enriching  life  and  defy- 
ing death,  is  the  true  natural  form,  matrix,  or 
cradle  in  which  the  conjugial  love  is  best  devel- 
oped. It  is  the  thorough  sympathy  with  one, 
which  makes  us  bountiful  to  all.  “ The  one 
beautiful  soul,”  says  Emerson,  “ is  the  only 
door  through  which  we  enter  into  the  society 
of  all  true  and  pure  souls.”  Unions  based  on 
sensual,  social,  or  civil  grounds,  may  dissolve 
or  perish.  But  those  natural  loves  which  emu- 


2i8  The  Sexes;  Ha-e  and  Hereafter. 

late  by  their  purity  and  beauty  the  conjugial  or 
heavenly  type,  we  instinctively  pronounce  im- 
mortal. Who  can  doubt  that  Abelard  and 
Eloise  found  no  isolating  cloister  in  heaven? 
That  Petrarch  and  Laura  are  no  longer  sepa- 
rated by  the  absurdities  of  rank  or  fortune? 
That  Dante  is  at  last  united  with  Beatrice  in  a 
life  more  beautiful  than  his  Poem?  And  that  in 
every  heavenly  choir  there  is  a loving  Margaret 
praying  for  some  earthly  Faust? 

The  young  heart  which  has  been  baptized 
with  the  dew  of  a chaste  and  sweet  love,  and 
which  keeps  itself  afterward  unspotted  from  the 
selfishness  and  sensuality  of  the  world,  can 
never  grow  old.  It  is  not  time  but  sin  which 
shuts  the  gate  of  heaven.  It  is  a beautiful 
thing,  and  truly  prophetic  of  our  immortal 
bloom,  that  man  may  return  in  his  old  age  into 
the  most  tender  and  charming  sentiments  of  his 
innocent  youth.  With  what  sweet  simplicit}'' 
and  candor  does  the  pious  and  learned  Perthes 
describe  the  effect  of  a second  marriage  upon 
him  in  his  old  ao-e  ! 

o 

“ My  own  experiences  amaze  me.  The 
varying  moods  familiar  to  the  innocent  heart 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  219 

of  the  boy  in  his  first  love ; the  enthusiastic 
tenderness  which  found  vent  in  happy  melan- 
choly and  universal  good-will  to  all  creation ; 
these  lay  far,  far  behind  me  like  a lovely  dream, 
and  no  wishing  had  power  to  call  them  back. 
But  now  I feel  again  as  I did  then.  How  is 
this  possible  in  a man  of  my  age?  How  can  I, 
whose  heart  has  been  so  tempest-tossed  by  time 
and  the  world; — how  can  I,  who  have  known 
so  much  and  sinned  so  much,  return  thus  to  the 
innocent  fondness  which  nestles  in  the  newly- 
awakened  heart  of  a boy?” 

Poor,  old,  pure-hearted  man  ! He  did  not 
know  that  nothing  but  the  thin  veil  of  death 
concealed  from  him  a land  of  eternal  youth  and 
eternal  love  ! 

The  spiritual  philosophy  of  sex  reveals  also 
the  origin  and  signification  of  Beauty, — that 
mysterious  and  ethereal  power  which  wakens 
the  love  of  man  for  woman  into  activity. 

Beauty  is  an  assemblage  of  properties  in  the 
form  of  a person  or  object,  the  contemplation 
of  which  inspires  the  soul  with  delight.  Those 
properties  depend  upon  symmetry,  grace,  color, 
expression,  harmony,  etc.  Beauty  is  the  result 


220  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

of  the  marriage  union  between  the  Divine 
Goodness  and  the  Divine  Truth,  as  manifested 
in  human  forms  or  natural  objects.  The  Di- 
vine Love  created  the  world  by  means  of  the 
Divine  Wisdom,  and  the  universe  was  therefore 
called  by  the  ancients  the  Cosmos,  or  essential 
beauty. 

Heat  and  light  are  the  ultimate  or  last  forms 
of  the  divine  love  and  wisdom  flowing  into 
nature.  The  beauty  of  every  substance  is 
determined  by  the  heat  and  light  which  give  it 
organization.  Its  form  is  determined  by  the 
relation  of  its  atoms  to  heat,  and  it  is  revealed 
to  our  perceptions  by  means  of  light.  It  ab- 
sorbs, reflects,  or  transmits  the  rays  of  light 
according  to  its  atomic  structure,  determined 
by  its  relation  to  heat.  The  beauty  of  the 
whole  external  world  depends  upon  form  and 
color ; and  form  and  color  depend  upon  the 
relation  which  the  atoms  of  all  objects  bear  to 
heat  and  light. 

This  natural  truth  is  the  exact  outward  ex- 
pression of  a similar  spiritual  truth.  What  we 
may  call  the  atomic  form  or  wall-principle  of 
the  soul,  is  determined  by  its  relation  to  tire  Di- 


spiritual  Philosophy  oy  Love  and  Beauty.  221 

vine  Love,  or  spiritual  heat;  while  its  intellec- 
tual manifestation  or  understanding,  is  deter- 
mined by  its  relation  to  the  Divine  Wisdom,  or 
spiritual  light.  When  the  two  influent  divine 
forces  are  perfectly  married  or  united  in  the 
spiritual  form,  we  have  perfect  symmetry, 
grace,  order,  and  beauty,  in  proportion  to  the 
use  of  the  form. 

The  life  of  the  Divine  Love  manifesting 
itself  through  the  Divine  Wisdom,  is  the  cause 
of  Beauty.  Therefore  the  Beautiful  is  a reve- 
lation of  the  True  containing  the  Good. 

Professor  Oersted  of  Copenhagen,  has  given 
these  ideas  scientific  expression  in  several  ses- 
thetic  papers.  He  maintains  that  the  beauty 
of  a thing  depends  upon  the  number,  character, 
or  influence  of  the  ideas  or  truths  involved 
in  it.  Why  do  we  feel  that  a curved  line  is 
more  beautiful  than  a straight  one?  Why  is  a 
circle  more  beautiful  than  a square,  or  a spiral 
than  a circle?  Because  the  higher  and  more 
complicated  form  involves  more  great  mathe- 
matical and  fundamental  truths  than  the  lower, 
and  conveys  a correspondingly  greater  sense 
of  pleasure  to  our  perceptive  faculties.  Why 

T iS 


222  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter, 

is  a crystal  more  beautiful  than  a common 
stone?  Because  it  expresses  and  symbolizes 
more  ideas  and  treasures  of  spiritual  truth. 
Could  we  grasp  the  ideas  represented  by  differ- 
ent objects,  we  should  have  the  key  to  all  of  na- 
ture’s symbolisms,  and  might  immediately  dis- 
cover why  a flower  is  more  beautiful  than  a peb- 
ble, why  spring  is  more  charming  than  winter, 
why  the  ocean  touches  us  with  such  sublime 
sentiments,  and  why  we  look  away  through  and 
beyond  the  golden  peace  of  an  evening  sky, 
into  the  purity,  love,  and  infinitude  of  heaven  ! 

It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  the  sensation  of 
the  beautiful,  that  the  understanding  should 
have  a conscious  perception  of  the  ideas  or 
truths  involved  in  the  beautiful  object.  The 
influence  of  beauty  is  like  that  of  music,  pro- 
ducing a state  of  the  soul  which  cannot  be  de- 
scribed in  words.  For  the  perception  of  the 
beautiful,  a certain  open  state  of  the  heart  is 
required  rather  than  an  exalted  activity  of  the 
head  ; for  the  beautiful  awakens  first  the  affec- 
tions and  then  the  thoughts.  The  poet  sees 
more  with  his  heart  in  the  flowers,  the  ri^’ulets, 
the  clouds,  the  sunset,  than  the  philosopher  with 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty.  223 

all  his  erudition.  And  it  is  only  the  pure  in 
heart  who  see  God. 

Reverting,  now,  to  the  spiritual  differences 
between  the  sexes,  we  discover  the  wonderful 
office  of  woman  in  revealing  the  beautiful  to 
man,  and  thereby  uniting  him  with  herself. 
The  Divine  Love  comes  to  man  not  directly 
from  the  Lord,  but  mediatel}"  thi'ough  woman. 
The  Divine  Wisdom  comes  to  woman  not  di- 
rectly from  the  Lord,  but  mediately  through 
man.  It  is  therefore  the  man’s  wisdom,  or  in- 
tellectual sphere,  which  the  woman  appropriates 
and  marries  to  her  own  love  derived  from  the 
Lord.  The  beauty  of  woman  is  the  result  of 
this  union.  Man  is  therefore  attracted  by  wo- 
man’s beauty,  because,  although  he  is  intellect- 
ually unconscious  of  it,  that  beauty  is  the  out- 
ward figure,  symbol,  and  revelation  of  some- 
thing inherent  in  his  own  intellectual  organizla- 
tion.  It  is  himself  in  another  form.  It  is  bone 
of  his  bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  Woman  is 
attracted  to  man,  because  he  realizes  for  her,  in 
his  deeds  of  strength  and  wisdom,  the  ideals  of 
her  love ; but  man  sees  himself  reflected  in 


224  2"he  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

woman,  and  his  wisdom  mirrored  back  to  him 
in  the  engaging  forms  of  beauty. 

The  logical  issue  of  these  psychological  laws 
is,  that  the  beauty  of  woman  will  always  and 
everywhere  depend  upon  the  impression  made 
upon  her  by  the  intellectual  sphere  of  man. 
All  women  cannot  be  beautiful,  until  all  men 
are  wise  and  manifest  their  wisdom  by  a good 
life.  The  treasures  of  the  masculine  under- 
standing and  their  utilization  in  obedience  to 
the  divine  commandments,  determine  the  state 
of  feminine  beauty  in  the  world.  Barbarians 
are  invariably  homely  and  repulsive,  because 
the  women  have  nothing  to  reflect  in  the  shape 
of  beauty,  except  a low,  selfish,  stupid  and  sen- 
sual type  of  masculine  life.  The  higher  and 
nobler  the  achievements  of  man  over  nature 
and  himself,  the  more  fully  and  radiantly  does 
woman  shine  forth  as  the  beautiful  realization 
of  his  dreams.  The  existence  of  such  men  as 
Homer  and  HUschylus  and  Plato  and  Socrates, 
was  the  cause  of  the  beauty  of  Grecian  women, 
and  of  the  passion  of  Grecian  genius  for  a 
beneficent  and  lovely  nature. 

The  love  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  is,  indeed, 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  a?td  Beauty.  225 

near  akin  to  the  chaste  and  spiritual  love  of 
woman  ; for  nature  reflects  the  wisdom  of  God 
just  as  woman  reflects  the  wisdom  of  man. 
And  poets  and  artists  who  project  the  interior 
wisdom  of  their  souls  into  the  beautiful  forms 
of  painting  and  statuary,  music  and  song,  exer- 
cise a kind  of  womanly  office  for  the  rest  of 
men,  stimulating  their  affections,  expanding 
their  thoughts,  and  developing  within  them  the 
higher  and  nobler  manhood. 

This  is  also  the  secret  of  the  fact,  that  the 
dullest  imagination  is  kindled  into  some  tempo- 
rary appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  nature  by 
the  inspiring  influence  of  woman’s  love.  The 
most  stupid  lovers  are  poets  ; but  it  is  only  the 
true  poets, — born,  not  made, — who  can  detect 
the  identity  of  the  beautiful  in  the  spiritual  and 
the  natural  spheres. 

“ She  seems  the  life  of  nature’s  powers  ; 

Her  beauty  is  the  genial  thought 
Which  makes  the  sunshine  bright.  The  flowers, 

But  for  their  hint  of  her,  were  naught.” 

Woman’s  passion  for  dress  is  duly  accounted 
for  by  her  intuitive  perception  of  the  fact,  that 
it  is  her  special  mission  to  secure  the  love  of 

15 


236  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

man  by  revealing  to  him  the  beautiful,  although 
she  is  ignorant  of  the  intimate  relation  existing 
between  female  beaut}^  and  masculine  wisdom. 
Dress,  including  all  that  relates  to  the  preser- 
vation and  ornamentation  of  the  person,  is  and 
ought  to  be  a fine  art  with  woman.  There  is  a 
clothes-philosophy  pregnant  with  more  spiritual 
truth  than  Carlyle  and  his  school  ever  imag- 
ined. She  who  does  not  seek  to  beautify  her- 
self, especially  after  marriage,  and  for  the 
influence  of  beauty  in  the  home-circle,  has  not 
fully  comprehended  the  nature  of  love  or  the 
duties  of  life.  A woman  without  that  assist- 
ance which  a refined  and  delicate  taste  can 
give  her,  is  like  a spring  without  flowers,  a 
feast  without  music,  a night  without  stars. 

In  an  unbelieving  and  sensual  age,  woman 
is  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  physical  beauty 
is  only  the  lowest  form  of  the  development  of 
the  beautiful.  If  she  loses  sight  of  moral  and 
intellectual  beaut}^,  and  thinks  that  man  cares 
only  for  physical  charms,  and  dresses  accord- 
ingly,  she  may  become  a vast  power  for  evil 
and  demoralization  in  the  social  sphere.  The 
true  wisdom  of  man  is  measured  by  his  appre- 


spiritual  Philosophy  oj"  Love  and  Beauty.  237 

ciation  of  spiritual  more  than  of  sensuous  beauty, 
— or  of  sensuous  beauty  only  as  fitly  embodying 
the  spiritual. 

The  beautiful  garments,  the  splendid  jewels 
and  precious  stones,  and  all  the  graceful  and 
charming  decorations  of  woman  in  the  state  of 
highest  civilization,  are  simply  the  exterior  rep- 
resentative symbols  of  the  spiritual  treasures 
which  exist  in  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  true 
wife.  These  treasures  are  chastity,  meekness, 
modesty,  fidelity, — the  luminaries  of  the  little 
heaven  of  home  ; the  face  unruffled  by  passion  ; 
the  eye  beaming  with  tenderness ; the  voice 
modulated  by  gentle  and  kindly  emotions ; the 
mind  full  of  radiant  and  happy  thoughts ; the 
heart  throbbing  with  self-sacrificing  love  of 
husband  and  children ; and  a soul  sweet  and 
pure,  reflecting  to  earth  the  light  and  peace  of 
heaven. 

Alas  ! why  is  it  that  the  proud,  the  sensual 
and  the  vicious  can  array  themselves  in  the 
fine  linen  and  purple  of  the  angels,  while  the 
good  and  the  pure  are  frequently  condemned 
like  culprits  to  the  humblest  and  coarsest  garb 
of  poverty?  Why  is  it  that  beautiful  faces  con 


22S  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

ceal  cruel  and  selfish  hearts,  while  homely  fea- 
tures fail  to  express  the  secret  spiritual  beaut}'' 
of  their  possessors?  The  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions involves  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  evil, 
and  its  effects  upon  the  human  soul  and  its  en- 
vironments,— subjects  foreign  to  the  scope  of 
this  little  volume.  Suffice  it  here  to  say,  that 
by  sin  the  correspondence  between  the  internal 
and  external  spheres  has  been  lost,  the  exterior 
no  longer  perfectly  representing  the  interior ; 
while  the  efforts  of  the  Divine  Providence  are 
still  directed  to  preserve  an  orderly  and  beau- 
tiful exterior,  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a new  and 
higher  interior  life. 

In  heaven,  however,  all  are  young  and  beau- 
tiful, and  clad  in  shining  garments.  This  is 
because  they  are  all  perfect  and  exquisite  forms 
of  married  love  and  wisdom.  Their  moral  and 
spiritual  beauty  resides  in  a splendid  external 
» form,  like  a gem  in  its  casket,  like  fragrance  in 
a flower.  The  heavenly  symmetry  of  their 
minds,  the  complete  union  of  goodness  and  truth 
or  of  charity  and  faith  in  their  affections  and 
thouo'hts,  ofives  their  exterior  embodiment  a 
most  resplendent  comeliness  corresponding  to 


spiritual  Philosophy  of  Love  atid  Beauty.  229 


their  spiritual  natures.  The  secret  of  all  this 
is  the  conjugial  love — the  vital  and  organizing 
principle  of  heaven,  the  primal  source  of  all 
beauty,  and  the  image  of  God  in  the  heart. 

u 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  SPIRITUAL  USES  OF  MARRIAGE. 

E approach  now  the  most  difficult  yet 
the  most  pleasing  part  of  our  task, — the 
spiritual  uses  of  marriage.  The  sub- 
ject is  solemn,  sublime,  and  inexhaustible.  He 
who  would  popularize  the  subtile  and  profound 
teachings  of  Swedenborg  on  conjugial  love, 
and  show  how  marriages  on  earth  may  be  made 
to  resemble  marriages  in  heaven,  would  render 
a greater  service  to  the  human  race  than  the  in- 
ventors of  oil  and  wine.  Many  candid  thinkers 
have  recognized  the  immense  additions  which 
this  writer  has  made  to  a rational  psychology ; 
but  only  his  earnest  students  see  the  important 
bearing  of  his  doctrines  upon  the  conduct  and 
duties  of  every-day  life. 

hlarriage  exists  as  a -principle  and  as  an 
institution. 

We  have  shown  that  marriage  as  a principle 

230 


The  Sptrihial  Uses  of  Marriage.  231 

is  universal.  A principle  is  a general  truth ; a 
law  comprehending  many  subordinate  truths ; 
a settled  law  or  rule  of  action ; a primordial 
element  or  operative  cause.  Nothing  exists  in 
the  universe  but  from  the  union  or  marriage  of 
two  other  things.  Every  form  is  dual.  Every 
form  is  governed  by  laws  of  affinity  and  attrac- 
tion. Sex,  love,  and  marriage  are  universal 
and  eternal.  • 

An  institution  is  that  which  is  appointed, 
prescribed,  established  by  authority,  and  in- 
tended to  be  permanent.  The  institution  of 
marriage  is  a form  of  divine  order,  by  means 
of  which  marriage  as  a principle,  an  eternal 
law  or  operative  cause,  can  govern  in  human 
and  angelic  societies  according  to  the  divine 
commandments. 

The  institutions  established  by  God,  are  de- 
signed to  bring  the  spiritual  and  natural  worlds 
into  harmonious  relation  with  Himself,  so  that 
one  God,  one  law,  one  life,  may  govern  in  both, 
man  become  the  image  of  God,  and  earth  the 
image  of  heaven. 

The  written  Word  of  God  is  an  institution, 
appointed,  prescribed,  and  established  by  divine 


232  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

authority,  connecting  heaven  and  earth.  An- 
gels live  in  the  sphere  of  its  spiritual  life,  and 
men  in  its  literal  sphere.  Obedience  to  the 
Word  in  the  letter  elevates  man  from  the  sen- 
sual to  the  rational  degree,  and  prepares  him 
for  the  reception  of  the  spiritual  or  angelic  life. 

The  Church  of  God,  with  its  ordinances,  bap- 
tism and  the  holy  supper,  is  an  external  institu- 
tional form  by  which  our  lives,  spiritual  and 
natural,  may  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
Divine  Will. 

The  marriane  of  one  man  with  one  woman 

O 

in  the  external  world  is  an  institutional  form, 
rep'ulatinor  the  mutual  influences  of  the  sexes 

O O 

on  each  other,  and  turning  them  into  specific 
channels  ; and  it  is  an  important  means  of  attain- 
ing to  the  higher  or  spiritual  marriage. 

The  Word  of  God  exists  in  heaven,  based 
upon  its  literal  or  institutional  form  on  earth. 
The  Church  of  God  exists  triumphant  in  hea- 
ven, based  on  its  militant  or  external  form  on 
earth.  Marriage  exists  in  heaven  and  pours 
down  its  harmonic  spiritual  life  into  marriages 
on  earth,  just  in  proportion  as  the  married  part- 
ners here  love  the  Word  and  the  Church  of 


The  Spiritital  Uses  of  Marriage.  233 

God,  and  lead  a life  of  idghteous  endeavor  and 
heavenly  use. 

Marriage  was  established  by  God ; for  Jesus 
said : 

“ Have  ye  not  read,  that  He  which  made 
them  at  the  beginning,  made  them  male  and 
female? 

“And  said  : For  this  cause  shall  a man  leave 
father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife  : 
and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh. 

“Wherefore  they  are  no  more  twain,  but 
one  flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined  to- 
gether, let  not  man  put  asunder.” 

The  institution  of  marriage  has  two  great 
spheres  of  use,  one  within  or  above  the  other. 
In  this  twofold  operation,  first  upon  the  exter- 
nal man  and  next  upon  the  internal,  it  also  re- 
sembles the  two  great  institutions  with  which 
we  have  compared  it,  viz.  : the  Word  and  the 
Church. 

The  first  great  use  of  the  institution,  is  to 
elevate  man  from  the  sensual  into  the  rational 
degree  of  life,  preparatory  to  the  opening  of 
the  spiritual  degree  in  him. 

Its  second  use  is  to  implant  the  conjugial 


234  The  Sexes;  Here  a7id  Hereafter. 

principle  in  him  as  a means  of  regeneration, 
and  so  to  spiritualize  and  fit  him  for  eternal 
marriage  in  heaven. 

Marriage  is  a means  designed  for  the  spiritual 
creation  and  up-building  of  man  out  of  chaotic 
materials  into  the  order  and  beauty  of  rational 
existence,  and  finally  into  the  glory  and  felicity 
of  angelic  life. 

The  necessity  of  marriage  as  a civil  or  re- 
ligious institution,  which  limits  the  intercourse 
of  the  sexes  to  one  husband  and  one  wife,  can 
only  be  seen  in  the  light  of  the  spiritual  truths 
enunciated  in  the  preceding  chapters.  There 
are  currents  of  spiritual  life  which  flow  from 
each  sex  to  the  other,  and  back  again  ; currents 
as  real  and  as  potent  as  the  red  tide  of  blood 
which  passes  from  the  heart  to  the  lungs,  and 
back  again,  enriched  with  aerial  treasure,  to  the 
heart. 

When  man  and  woman  live  together  in  mar- 
riage, the  woman  becomes  so  powerfully  and 
organically  impressed  wdth  the  spiritual  image 
of  the  man,  that  it  sometimes  happens  that  the 
children  by  a second  husband  resemble  a first 
husband  long  dead,  but  whose  spiritual  image 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage.  235 

had  been  ineffaceably  stamped  on  the  interior 
forms  of  the  woman’s  life.  The  man  receives 
similar  spiritual  influx  from  the  partner  of  his 
bosom ; and  his  after-life  is  not  the  life  of  his 
own  intellect,  but  the  life  of  his  intellect  modi- 
fied by  the  inflowing  and  inspiring  emotional 
life  of  the  woman. 

The  state  of  man  and  woman  living  together 
in  the  bonds  of  wedlock,  is  vastly  different  from 
the  state  of  man  and  woman  unmarried.  The 
tendency  of  their  reciprocal  reactions  resem- 
bling the  magnetic  induction,  is  to  engraft  the 
nature  of  each  upon  the  other,  and  gradually 
to  bring  thought,  feeling,  and  life  into  spiritual 
harmony. 

Thus  a husband  or  wife  is  a direct,  powerful, 
concentrating  focus  through  which  the  other 
party  may  receive  special  influx  from  heavenly 
sources. 

The  effect  of  marriage,  therefore,  upon  the 
masculine  soul,  is  to  sharpen  and  brighten  its 
faculties,  to  enlarge  and  humanize  its  powers, 
and  to  qualify  it  in  an  eminent  degree  for  the 
uses  and  labors  of  life.  How  sweetly  does 
the  poet  Schiller  state  this  psychological  fact 


236  The  Sexes;  Het'e  ajid  Hereafter. 

in  a letter  to  a friend  several  months  after  his 
marriage  ! — 

“It  is  altogether  a different  existence  by  the 
side  of  a dear  wife,  from  such  a desolate  and 
lonely  one  as  mine  was  even  in  summer.  Now 
for  the  first  time  I wholly  enjoy  fair  nature,  and 
live  in  it.  Things  about  me  again  array  them- 
selves in  poetic  forms.  What  a beautiful  life  I 
lead  now  ! My  existence  has  gained  a harmo- 
nious continuity  ; not  passionately  excited,  but 
clearly  and  calmly  my  days  flow  on.  A few 
years  more,  and  I shall  live  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  my  mind — nay,  I hope  to  return  to  my  youth  ; 
an  inward  spring  of  poetic  life  will  restore  it  to 
me.” 

Poetry  and  romance  have  hitherto  been 
busied  with  the  passionate  strivings  of  conge- 
nial spirits  after  their  destined  union.  Wedded 
love  is  3mt  unsung,  unwritten.  The  poet  of 
marriage,  who  shall  divine  the  celestial  secrets 
of  womanhood,  and,  I'everencing  all  while  he 
loves  only  one,  shall  ravish  mankind  with  his 
chaste  melodies,  has  yet  to  appear.  Not  Cupid 
but  Hymen  is  the  true  joy-bringer,  miracle- 
worker,  and  heaven-revealer.  Fi'om  the  wed- 


The  Spirittcal  Uses  of  Marriage.  237 

ding-day  the  heart  begins  a new  life,  the  undei'- 
standing  creates  a new  history.  Heaven  upon 
earth  is  to  young  lovers  a dream,  but  to  the 
truly  married  it  becomes  a possibility. 

Woman,  being  the  complement  of  man,  taken 
out  of  him  and  yearning  to  be  reunited  with  his 
bosom-life,  is  gifted  by  Providence  with  powers 
of  perception,  attraction,  submission,  conceal- 
ment, and  endurance,  and  with  wifely  mysteries 
and  faculties,  unknown  to  man,  whereof  she  is 
often  herself  unconscious,  but  which  enable  her 
to  draw,  to  bend,  to  soften,  to  inspire  and 
modify  the  masculine  soul,  so  that  she  becomes 
indispensable  to  it,  inseparable  from  it,  and  an 
integral  and  eternal  part  of  it. 

This  wonderful  spiritual  interchange  between 
the  sexes,  tending  to  develop  a pure  and  true 
humanity,  is  only  possible  between  one  man 
and  one  woman  in  the  bonds  of  matrimony. 
The  wife  is  the  true  source  of  spiritual  heat, 
and  the  husband  of  spiritual  light,  to  the  world. 
A society  in  which  the  sexes  live  promiscuously, 
has  no  spiritual  heat  or  light,  but  only  natu- 
ral. They  cannot  rise  above  the  barbaric 
standard.  If  it  were  possible  to  keep  any  free- 


238  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

love  association  together,  separate  from  the  rest 
of  their  own  race,  they  would  become  in  a few 
generations  savage  or  imbecile. 

The  first  or  natural  use  of  marriao-e,  after 
the  procreation  of  the  species,  is  to  elevate  man 
above  that  sensual  life  which  he  shares  with 
the  brutes,  into  a capability  of  scientific  and 
rational  thought.  This  is  below  the  spiritual 
degree  of  life,  but  is  preparatory  to  it.  The 
state  of  marriage  is  the  key  to  the  civil,  social, 
and  institutional  life  of  a people.  Monogamy 
means  civilization  ; polj^gamy  means  barbarism. 
No  science,  no  literature,  no  liberty,  no  high 
and  progressive  development,  no  truly  rational 
life,  is  possible  where  woman  is  degraded  and 
marriage  unregulated  by  the  laws  of  divine 
order. 

The  first  or  Asiatic  civilizations  drew  their 
vitality  from  the  golden  age  of  the  world,  be- 
fore the  relations  between  the  sexes  became 
corrupted  and  sensualized  by  poh'gamy  and 
concubinage.  The  stagnation  or  decline  of  a 
people  dates  fi'om  the  desecration  of  marriage 
as  an  institution.  The  Orient  has  been  crys- 
tallized or  petrified  for  ages ; so  to  remain,  until 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Alarriage.  239 

some  touch  of  divine  power  shall  free  woman 
from  her  sensual  bondage,  and  imbue  her  with 
that  spiritual  love  which  alone  can  stimulate 
into  glad  activity  the  entire  intellectual  life  of 
man. 

As  far  back  as  historical  records  extend, 
polygamy  and  concubinage  have  existed  in 
Asia ; but  that  mankind  began  its  career  with 
a purer  system,  we  have  the  words  of  the  Lord 
Himself  to  prove;  for  Jesus  said: 

“ Moses,  because  of  the  hardness  of  your 
hearts,  suffered  you  to  put  away  your  wives ; 
but  from  the  beginning  it  was  7iot  so.” 

“And  I say  unto  you  [restoring  the  primal, 
divine  law] , Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife, 
except  it  be  for  fornication,  and  shall  marry  an- 
other, committeth  adultery.” 

The  following  beautiful  extract  from  a Hin- 
doo epic  composed  two  thousand  years  before 
Christ,  and  therefore  one  of  the  most  ancient 
writings  in  the  world,  shows  a wonderful  con- 
ception of  the  strength  and  purity  of  a wifely 
love,  such  as  existed  in  that  “beginning”  to 
which  the  Word  refers.  Sita,  the  heroine, 
insists  upon  accompanying  her  husband  into  a 


240  The  Sexes;  Here  a7td  Hereafter. 

fearful  and  interminable  forest  into  which  his 
enemies  have  driven  him  : 

“ Son  of  the  venerable  parent!  hear! 

’Tis  Sita  speaks.  Oh,  art  thou  not  assured 
That  to  each  being  his  allotted  time 
And  portion,  as  his  merit,  are  assigned ! 

And  that  the  wife  her  husband’s  portion  shares  ? 
Therefore  with  thee  this  forest  doom  I claim. 

A woman’s  bliss  is  found,  not  in  the  smile 
Of  father,  mother,  friend,  or  in  herself. 

Her  husband  is  her  only  portion  here, 

Her  heaven  hereafter.  If  thou  must  indeed 
Depart  this  day  into  those  dreadful  shades, 

I will  precede  and  smooth  the  thorny  way. 

Chide  not  the  wife;  for  where  the  husband  is. 

Within  the  palace,  on  the  stately  car. 

Or  wandering  in  the  air,  in  every  state. 

The  shadow  of  his  feet  is  her  abode.” 

While  the  Persians,  Assyrians,  and  Egyp- 
tians, having  closed  the  avenues  of  spiritual 
life,  through  the  perversions  and  desecrations 
of  marriage,  were  consuming  awa}"  in  the  bale- 
ful fires  of  their  own  sensuality,  two  sturdy 
races  were  preparing  to  assume  in  turn  the 
empire  of  the  world.  The  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans were  the  first  nations  of  antiquity  who 
restored  by  legal  enactment  the  lost  institution 


The  Spiritual  Uses  oj^  Marriage.  241 

of  monogamjr,  and  threw  the  shields  of  law 
and  public  opinion  around  the  sacred  rights  of 
husband  and  wife.  From  the  influx  of  the  di- 
vine love  and  wisdom  through  the  appropriate 
forms  of  the  monogamic  marriage,  came  a 
new  institutional  life — a new  civilization  with 
its  monuments  of  wisdom  and  beauty,  the  very 
ashes  of  which  still  excite  the  admiration  of 
mankind. 

When  they,  too,  became  wholly  corrupt  and 
sensual ; when  religion  was  silent  and  virtue 
extinct ; when  the  poet,  the  philosopher,  and 
the  artist  disappeared,  and  the  shadows  of  a 
long  and  fearful  night  gathered  about  their  de- 
parted glories ; any  one  acquainted  with  our 
key  to  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  history,  might 
have  foretold  where  the  sun  of  a better  and 
nobler  civilization  would  arise,  on  reading  a 
single  passage  in  Tacitus  descriptive  of  the 
German  branch  of  the  great  people  of  Northern 
Europe : 

“ They  take  only  one  wife;  and  become  as 
it  were  one  body  and  one  soul,  having  no 
thought  or  desire  beyond  ; and  loving,  not  only 

their  partners,  but  matrimony  itself.” 
le  V 


242  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

Yes — the  marriage  of  one  husband  with  one 
wife  is  the  keystone  of  the  social  arch.  A state 
rises  to  power,  glory,  art,  genius,  with  virtuous 
marriage.  It  trembles  on  the  verge  of  destruc- 
tion when  the  reciprocations  between  the  sexes 
are  more  sensuous  than  spiritual. 

Hence  the  importance  of  preserving  the  ex- 
ternal form  of  the  institution,  as  a basis  upon 
which  its  spiritualizing  power  is  to  rest.  De- 
velopment depends  upon  conditions.  Spiritual 
forces  can  only  operate  through  organic  forms. 
The  institution  of  monogamic  marriage,  pro- 
tected by  law,  cherished  by  public  opinion,  and 
hallowed  by  the  religious  sentiment  of  a people, 
is  an  organic  social  form  into  which  spiritual 
forces  can  descend,  and  enrich  our  human  life 
with  numberless  individual  and  public  blessings. 

It  is  necessary  for  the  peace,  dignity,  and 
spirituality  of  the  institution,  that  the  external 
bond  should  continue  in  force  during  the  period 
of  natural  life.  To  disturb  the  fixity  of  mar- 
riage, is  to  unsettle  the  foundations  of  human 
society,  and  pervert  or  prevent  the  influx  of 
heavenl}^  powers  into  the  human  race.  It  is 
the  road  back  to  barbarism. 


The  Spij-ihial  Uses  of  Marriage.  243 

The  divine  law  that  nothing  but  adultery 
shall  justify  divorce,  is  founded  on  the  spiritual 
nature  and  uses  of  marriage.  So  long  as  the 
parties  remain  faithful  to  each  other,  no  matter 
what  their  incompatibility  of  temper  and  cha- 
racter, so  long  does  the  spiritual  interchange 
between  the  sexes  continue,  striving  for  equi- 
librium and  unity  ; and  so  long  is  there  a hope 
that  marriage  as  a discipline,  even  through  its 
trials,  sorrows,  and  contentions,  may  promote 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  parties.  But  when 
the  woman  absorbs  the  intellectual  sphere  of 
another  man,  or  the  husband  becomes  inspired 
by  the  love-principle  emanating  from  another 
woman,  the  laws  of  our  spiritual  life  are  vio- 
lated ; the  order  of  heaven  is  broken ; the 
unitizing  end  of  marriage  is  lost ; the  marriage 
itself  is  annulled ; the  heart  is  hardened ; the 
understanding  is  darkened ; and  heaven  is 
closed  to  the  offending  party,  only  to  be  opened 
again  by  many  tears  and  deep  repentance. 

Most  men  are  ready  to  admit  that  the  institu- 
tion of  marriage,  with  all  its  cares,  affections, 
and  responsibilities,  its  love  of  children  and 
home,  its  affinity  for  law  and  order,  its  kinship 


244  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

to  religion  and  true  liberty,  has  been  the  grand 
stimulus  and  agent  of  development  in  elevating 
man  from  a selfish  and  sensuous  state  of  life  to 
a higher  and  purer  condition,  full  of  thought, 
sentiment  and  rational  power.  And  yet  this 
high  state  of  civilized,  scientific  and  rational 
life,  is  not  spiritual  life;  nor  is  the  purest  and 
sweetest  married  love  ever  developed  under  its 
influences,  the  conjugial  love  of  Swedenborg, 
or  the  bond  which  unites  the  angels  of  heaven 
in  marriage. 

Spiritual  life  is  not  attainable  by  arts  or  sci- 
ences or  philosophies.  INIen  may  become  Ba- 
cons, Franklins,  Comtes,  Faradays,  without 
having  as  much  spiritual  life  awakened  in 
their  souls  as  may  exist  in  some  little  Sunday- 
school  scholar,  or  in  the  heart  of  the  humblest 
slave.  Spiritual  life  is  only  obtained  by  obey- 
ing the  commandments  of  God  from  religious 
;princfle.  The  conjugial  love  is  a part — and 
the  richest,  heavenliest  part — of  the  spiritual 
life. 

Man  from  sensual  becomes,  first  rational,  and 
then  spiritual.  The  rational  is  the  connecting 
bond  by  which  the  spiritual  is  enabled  to  de- 


"The  Spiritual  Uses  oj'  Marriage.  245 

scend  and  govern  and  regenerate  the  sensual 
man.  The  Word  of  God  in  its  literal  sense, 
and  the  Church  of  God  as  an  external  insti- 
tution, have  performed  a mighty  use  in  the 
elevation  of  man  from  his  sensual  state  into 
rational  light.  The  institution  of  monogamic 
marriage,  based  on  the  same  divine  principles, 
has  exercised  a similar  function. 

The  Church,  having  prepared  the  human 
mind  by  its  ceremonial  laws  and  ordinances 
and  literal  instructions  for  a higher  and  more 
interior  life,  comes  to  us  glorified  in  a more 
spiritual  form,  not  yet  recognized  by  men. 
The  Word  of  God,  having  brought  the  sensual 
mind  by  its  heavenly  influences  into  rational 
life  and  order,  is  now  opened  in  its  spiritual 
degree,  and  all  are  invited  to  partake  freely  of 
the  water  of  life  in  a higher  sense  than  ever 
before.  The  institution  of  marriage,  having 
contributed  its  share  in  the  elevation  of  the 
race,  is  now  revealed  to  us  in  new  power  and 
glory,  as  the  great  means  of  individual  regen- 
eration and  of  a perfect  social  organization. 

Spiritual  marriage  is  such  a conjunction  of 
minds  and  hearts,  that  the  will  of  one  party  is 

V » 


246  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 


perfectly  and  reciprocally  united  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  othei' — so  that  the  husband  and 
wife  find  their  whole  life  distinctly  imaged  or 
repeated,  each  in  the  other;  constituting  the 
“ one  flesh”  in  the  symbolic  language  of  Scrip- 
ture. 

Such  marriages  exist  among  angels  and  are 
possible  among  men,  because  the  sexes  are 
unequal  and  imperfect  when  apart ; but,  being 
complements  of  each  other,  they  constitute, 
when  spiritually  united,  one  man,  one  angel, 
the  image  of  God,  and  the  unit  in  the  Lord’s 
Church. 

The  passional  attraction,  the  connecting  bond 
in  the  spiritual  marriage,  is  the  conjugial  love, 
transcending  all  our  earthly  conceptions  of  love, 
as  much  as  its  delights  transcend  all  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  senses  and  all  the  delights  of  our 
natural  life. 

This  conjugial  love  and  this  heavenly  mar- 
riage are  only  possible  between  two  regenerate 
souls.  This  at  once  lifts  the  conjugial  love  of 
Swedenborg  into  a sphere  of  thought  never 
before  traversed  by  poet  or  philosopher,  from 
Sappho  to  Michelet. 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage.  2 17 

Regeneration  is  the  new  birth ; the  birth  of 
a new  will  and  of  a new  understanding.  No 
man  and  woman  in  the  world  can  possibly  be 
united  in  conjugial  love,  so  long  as  they  retain 
the  old  or  carnal  will  and  understanding.  Our 
natural  will  is  too  selfish  to  blend  in  married 
harmony  with  the  wdll  of  another.  Different 
feelings,  different  opinions,  discords  of  some 
kind,  are  inevitable  between  man  and  woman 
in  their  unregenerate  state,  not  yet  spiritualized 
by  the  new  birth  in  the  soul.  ' 

When  a new  will  or  a new  selfhood  from  the 
Lord  is  planted  in  the  heart,  the  old  selfish  and 
sensual  nature  dies  and  disappears ; and  the 
conjugial  union  is  gradually  and  progressively 
effected  from  a spiritual  or  divine  stand-point, 
which  is  the  centre  of  all  union,  peace,  and 
love. 

That  stand-point  is  attained  by  both  parties 
only  through  a life  of  obedience  to  the  divine 
commandments.  These  commandments  are 
not  the  mere  edicts  of  a king  to  his  subjects. 
They  are  the  organic  laws  of  the  Divine  Life ; 
they  are  God's  own  mode  of  existence  and 
action.  Obedience  to  Him  is,  therefore,  living 


24S  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Heredyter. 

like  God  in  our  finite  spheres,  so  that  we  are  in 
perpetual  communication  with  Him,  receive  life 
from  Him,  and  thereby  become  his  images — his 
children. 

Man  and  woman,  therefore,  advance  toward 
the  state  of  conjugial  love,  and  of  spiritual  mar- 
riage as  it  exists  in  heaven,  in  exact  proportion 
as  they  die  to  their  sinful  and  selfish  nature, 
and  rise  into  angelic  states  of  married  charity 
and  faith.  And  the  sphere  of  conjugial  love 
with  its  delights,  is  perpetually  flowing  from 
heaven  into  married  partners  who  strive  to  per- 
form all  their  duties  with  religious  fidelit}" ; and 
is  steadily  inspiring  their  merely  sensual  and 
social  loves  with  a higher  and  purer  life. 

Man  and  woman  are  not  conjugially  united, 
until  the  husband  regards  all  other  women  from 
his  wife’s  stand-point ; until  he  has  absorbed 
her  womanly  nature  so  thoroughl}^  that  he  feels 
toward  all  other  women  just  as  she  does ; nor 
until,  on  the  other  hand,  the  wife  is  so  thorough- 
ly impregnated  with  the  masculine  wisdom  of 
the  husband,  that  she  sees  all  other  men  and 
things  just  as  the}^  appear  in  his  eyes.  Where 
such  a union  exists,  infidelity,  discoi'd,  coldness, 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage.  249 

are  impossible.  Where  such  a union  exists, 
Swedenborg’s  pictures  of  married  life  in  heaven 
do  not  exceed  the  bounds  of  rational  belief. 

This  wifely  struggle  after  identification  with 
the  husband,  involving  the  subjugation  of  her 
own  emotions  and  instincts,  is  finely  described 
by  Shakespeare  in  the  words  of  the  chaste  and 
proud  Queen  Catharine,  when  defending  her 
character  before  her  sensual  and  cruel  lord  : 

“ Heaven  witness 

I have  been  to  yon  a true  and  humble  wife; 

At  all  times  to  your  will  conformable; 

Ever  in  fear  to  kindle  your  dislike; 

Yea — subject  to  your  countenance;  glad  or  sorry 
As  I saw  it  inclined.  When  was  the  hour 
I ever  contradicted  3'our  desire.^ 

Or  made  it  not  mine,  too.?  Which  of  your  friends 
Have  I not  strove  to  love,  although  I knew 
He  were  mine  enemy.?  W'^hat  friend  of  mine 
That  had  to  him  derived  j'our  anger,  did  I 
Continue  in  my  liking.?” 


All  attempts  at  spiritual  union  without  a new 
and  regenerate  will,  must  prove  utter  failures. 
Such  unions  are  the  mere  surrenders  or  subju- 
gations of  one  will  to  another ; or  compromises 
of  sentiment  and  opinion,  effecting  a certain 


2^0  The  Sexes;  Here  and  He7-eaftcr. 

external  harmony  and  peace  necessary  to  the 
well-being  of  both  parties.  The  spiritual  iden- 
tification only  takes  place  in  the  new  will,  the 
new  creature.  When  that  is  perfected,  the 
conjugial  wife  answers  to  the  description  given 
by  a new  poet,  and  which,  with  a change  of 
gender,  is  applicable  also  to  the  conjugial  hus- 
band : 

“ The  wife  is  a woman  married  in  every  organ  and  in  every 
fibre ; 

Not  in  body  only,  but  also  in  soul. 

Her  eyes  are  married  eyes, 

And  turn  full  upon  one  only; 

From  all  others  they  are  averted. 

Her  ears  are  married  ears. 

And  hear  only  one  voice. 

Her  hand  is  a married  hand. 

And  clasps  but  one  other. 

Her  breasts  are  wedded  also : 

All  her  senses  are  connubial. 

All  her  life  is  conjugial  interchange; 

And  in  everything  is  the  conjugial  embrace.” 

Now  comes  the  great  and  practical  ques- 
tion,— How  is  the  institution  of  marriage  to  be 
made  instrumental  in  the  regeneration  of  the 
soul,  and  in  the  preparation  for  that  purer  and 
eternal  marriage  in  heaven?  What  special  ad- 


351 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Alarriage. 

vantage  has  a married  over  an  unmarried  per- 
son in  this  respect?  What  is  the  ditference 
between  a married  man,  striving  to  obey  the 
commandments  of  God,  and  a single  man  with 
the  same  religious  spirit  and  endeavor?  The 
answer  will  reveal  to  us  the  highest  spiritual 
use  of  marriage. 

Let  us  revert  to,  or  restate,  some  of  our  fun- 
damental psychological  truths. 

Sex,  love,  and  marriage  are  universal  and 
eternal ; and  the  ideal  universe  is  a universe 
perfectly  married  or  equilibrated  in  its  male 
and  female  elements. 

The  Lord  infuses  love  or  spiritual  heat 
through  the  feminine  form,  and  wisdom  or 
spiritual  light  through  the  masculine  form. 
Heat  alone,  or  light  alone,  is  powerless ; com- 
bined or  married,  they  produce  all  things. 

Every  male  form  in  the  universe  has  a female 
form,  its  complement,  its  eternal  and  necessary 
counterpart ; and  these  forms,  having  specific 
affinities,  are  ever  striving  for  union. 

The  Lord  has  instituted  the  marriage  of  one 
man  wfith  one  woman  as  a means  whereby  the 
love  of  the  sex  into  which  we  are  born,  shall 


253  The  Sexes;  Here  ajid  Hereafter. 

be  changed  into  the  love  of  one  of  the  sex 
only,  and  the  marriage  of  spiritual  heat  and 
light  or  of  love  and  wisdom,  be  effected  in  the 
soul. 

The  woman  increases  in  love  and  communi- 
cates it  to  the  man,  and  the  man  increases  in 
wisdom  and  communicates  it  to  the  woman, 
exactly  in  proportion  to  their  obedience  to  the 
divine  commandments.  Obedience  to  the  di- 
vine law  draws  down  the  divine  life,  or  opens 
the  soul  to  its  influx.  The  divine  life  is  love 
and  wisdom.  The  woman  becomes  more  and 
more  loving  and  beautiful ; the  man  more  and 
more  wise  and  strong.  Each  transfers  his  all 
to  the  other,  and  thereby  continually  increases 
his  own  joy  and  perfection. 

Conjugial  love,  thus  generated  in  two  conge- 
nial and  correspondent  souls,  causes  an  intense 
vivifleation  of  all  delights,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  from  the  inmost  shrine  of  the  soul 
to  all  the  senses  of  the  body. 

Alas  ! that  these  beautiful  and  holy  truths 
should  be  so  little  known  in  the  church  and  the 
world  ! 

An  unmarried  man  receives  influx  into  his 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage.  253 

love-principle  from  the  whole  sphere  of  the 
female  sex,  which  generates  in  him  the  love  of 
the  sex.  However  sweet,  tender,  and  elevating, 
in  a civilized  country  instinct  with  scientific  and 
rational  life,  this  general  feminine  sphere  may 
be,  it  cannot  have  the  direct  and  concentrated 
power  of  the  love-element  of  some  one  woman, 
absorbing  from  him  his  corresponding  wisdom- 
element,  and  returning  it  to  him  through  undis- 
coverable  avenues,  vivified  and  utilized  for  a 
noble  life. 

When  the  soul  fails  to  discover  the  congenial 
love  which  identifies  its  enraptured  being  with 
that  of  another,  it  reaches  out  for  something  to 
grasp,  to  keep,  to  give  itself  to,  to  blend  itself 
with.  Those  least  elevated  above  the  brute, 
marry  themselves  to  pleasure  and  money.  One 
sighs  for  fame  with  the  madness  of  a lover ; 
another  sees  in  art  the  ethereal  bride  of  his 
aspirations.  The  ecstatic  soul  is  wedded  to  the 
church,  and  lays  his  life  down  at  her  altar. 
The  wifeless  grenadier  of  Napoleon  espouses 
la  belle  France,  and  dies  in  the  embrace  of  her 
colors. 

Marriage  is  an  institution  which  brings  new 
w 


254  The  Sexes;  Here  a7icl  Hereafter. 

influences  to  bear,  which  causes  a direct  and 
reciprocal  and  powerful  spiritual  current  from 
one  sex  to  the  other,  capable  of  producing 
incalculable  evil  or  incalculable  good.  If  the 
parties  religiously  keep  the  commandments  of 
God,  and  discharge  their  duties  toward  each 
other  with  conscientious  fidelity,  they  enjoy 
immense  advantages  over  those  not  married. 
For  there  is  a constant  interchange  of  proper- 
ties which  tends  continually  to  elevate  them 
and  unite  them  together.  They  take  on  each 
other’s  mental  states.  The  woman  absorbs  the 
interior  will  of  the  man  and  blends  it  with  her 
own  which  she  has  consecrated  to  the  Lord ; 
and  the  man  elevates  her  understanding  into 
that  spiritual  light  into  which  his  own  mind  has 
penetrated  by  loving  and  reverently  obeying 
the  Divine  will.  They  grow  more  and  more 
alike  interiorly,  increasing  their  spiritual  power 
and  perception  by  their  union.  The  man  rises 
into  higher  states  of  wisdom,  the  woman  into 
higher  states  of  love ; and  so,  by  mutual  help 
and  inspiration,  they  approach  ever  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  Lord,  the  fountain  of  all  love  and 
all  wisdom. 


The  Sph'ittial  Uses  of  Mari-iage.  255 

Swedenborg  says  that  no  children  are  born 
in  the  spiritual  world ; but  that,  instead  of  chil- 
dren, there  are  “spiritual  prolifications  ” or 
increments  in  love  and  wisdom  and  the  de- 
lights that  flow  therefrom,  in  proportion  to  the 
faith  and  love  which  the  married  parties  exer- 
cise toward  the  Lord.  The  same  “ spiritual 
prolifications,”  or  advances  in  the  regenerate 
life,  are  obtained  in  this  world  by  marriage, 
when  it  is  entered  upon  from  religious  motives, 
is  inspired  with  religious  activities,  and  its  duties 
and  all  the  varied  duties  of  life  are  performed 
with  religious  fidelity. 

All  the  circumstances  of  married  life — its 
loves,  its  hopes,  its  duties,  its  fears,  its  toils,  its 
sorrows — tend  to  the  destruction  of  our  self- 
hood and  the  consecration  of  one’s  life  and 
labor  to  others  ; to  the  awakening  of  gentle  and 
pure  affections ; to  lessons  of  patience,  forbear- 
ance, self-denial ; and  to  the  cultivation  of  all 
the  truly  Christian  graces.  The  uses  of  the 
married  state  are  far  better  mediums  for  the 
influx  of  divine  life  and  power,  far  better  fitted 
to  make  men  spiritual  in  the  angelic  sense  of 
the  word,  than  any  celibate  conditions  what- 


2^6  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

ever.  If  angels  were  visible,  they  would  be 
seen  much  oftener  in  the  mechanic’s  workshop 
and  the  children’s  nursery,  than  in  the  her- 
mit’s cell  or  the  nun’s  cloister.  Heaven  is  a 
state  of  useful,  joyful  labor,  not  for  self  but  for 
others. 

But  suppose  the  parties  are  uncongenial  and 
unloving,  and  do  not  tread  with  equal  step  the 
path  of  the  regenerate  life?  Where,  then,  are 
the  spiritual  uses  of  marriage? 

The  Lord  governs  in  marriage  as  in  all 
things  else ; and  we  are  led  by  ways  unknown 
to  ourselves  into  states  best  adapted  to  our  spir- 
itual requirements.  A good  man  with  a proud, 
selfish,  cold-hearted  woman,  may  gradually  im- 
part to  her  the  grand  inspiration  of  his  spiritual 
wisdom,  and  stimulate  her  to  a better  emotional 
life.  And  on  the  other  hand  a good  woman 
may  gradually  infuse  a tender,  womanly  ele- 
ment into  the  cold,  selfish,  and  sensual  hus- 
band. And  so  even  uncongenial  partners,  by 
striving  to  perform  all  their  duties  religiously, 
may  greatly  contribute  to  the  awakening  and 
growth  of  spiritual  life  in  each  other. 

It  xnay  frequently  be  necessary  that  parties 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Marriage.  257 

wholly  uncongenial,  or  even  antagonistic,  shall 
be  brought  together  in  this  world  for  their  own 
spiritual  good.  Deep-rooted  evils  which  other- 
wise might  remain  unknown,  may  thereby  be 
brought  to  light,  so  as  to  be  acknowledged,  re- 
pented of,  and  put  away.  The  very  contentions 
and  collisions  of  the  married  life  may  be  ser-. 
viceable  in  the  great  work  of  regeneration,  by 
the  secret  spiritual  influences  of  the  sexes  on 
each  other.  The  essential  thing  on  earth  is, 
not  conjugial  union, — a thing  at  present  ex- 
tremely rare, — but  the  preservation  of  the  con- 
jugial principle  in  the  soul,  which  may  flower 
after  death  into  the  conjugial  love,  and  lead  to 
a true  marriage  in  heaven. 

Every  human  being,  male  or  female,  mated 
or  unmated,  who  is  learning  to  love  by  striving 
to  obey  the  Lord,  is  developing  the  conjugial 
principle  In  the  depths  of  the  soul,  which  will 
finally  lead  through  every  labyrinth  to  that 
glorious  mansion  in  the  skies,  where  the  other 
congenial,  beautiful  soul  awaits  its  coming. 

A still  grander  use  of  marriage,  and  one  run- 
ning parallel  with  that  of  perfecting  the  indi- 
vidual character,  is  its  use  in  the  construction 

W SC- 


17 


258  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

of  a perfect  society,  a social  millennium,  the 
reign  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth. 

Heaven  is  so  perfectly  organized  that  its 
social  elements  never  conflict  or  jar ; for  all 
in  heaven  are  regenerate,  and  are  capable 
of,  and  are  introduced  into,  the  heavenly  mar- 
riage. The  same  social  order,  peace,  and  love, 
will  be  approximated  on  earth,  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  increase  of  regenerate  and  re- 
generating couples  here  below. 

“ The  family,”  says  Tholuck,  “ was  God’s 
first  Church.”  And  his  last  and  eternal  Church 
— the  New  Jerusalem — will  be  a vast  con- 
gregation of  families,  each  of  which  will  be, 
through  regeneration  and  true  marriage,  a per- 
fect church,  a heaven  in  miniature. 

It  is  a psychological  law  announced  by  Swe- 
denborg, that  the  state  of  conjtigial  love  be- 
tween man  and  woman,  determines  all  other 
loves;  determines  not  only  the  joj’s  of  the  mar- 
ried life,  but  the  integrity,  purity,  wisdom  of 
the  parental  love,  the  love  of  the  neighbor  and 
one’s  country,  the  love  of  the  Church  and  the 
Word  ; determines  the  nature  of  all  the  outflow- 
ing affections  of  the  human  spirit ; determines, 


The  Spiritual  Uses  of  Alarriage.  259 

therefore,  the  entire  civilization  and  outward 
condition  of  a people. 

Give  us  individual  regeneration ; then  let 
male  and  female  regenerate  souls  be  linked  in 
holy  wedlock,  and  we  have  the  levers  which 
will  move  and  change  the  face  of  human  so- 
ciety, The  new  era,  the  new  life,  the  New 
Jerusalem,  will  begin  in  the  closet,  the  cham- 
ber, the  parlor,  the  home ; and  thence  it  will 
radiate  like  the  sun  in  his  glory,  until  it  illu- 
mines and  melts  the  world. 

The  spiritual  wealth  of  one  generation  will 
be  transmitted  to  another.  Swedenborg  says 
that  sons  born  of  parents  who  live  in  the  conju- 
gial  love,  are  more  receptive  of  divine  truth, 
while  the  daughters  are  more  receptive  of  di- 
vine love,  than  others.  Herein  lies  one  great 
hope  of  the  world.  Few  men  or  women  have 
the  least  idea  yet,  how  far  the  human  race  may 
be  perfected  by  the  cultivation  of  maternity  and 
paternity  as  high  and  holy  arts,  divested  en- 
tirely of  the  sensual  element.  When  natural 
and  divine  laws  are  studied,  reverenced,  and 
obeyed  in  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  we  shall 
have  a strong,  pure,  healthy,  wise,  and  loving 


26o  'The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

generation  of  men,  of  which  the  highest  ex- 
amples we  can  now  present  are  types  and  pro- 
phecies. 

The  enlightenment  of  the  mind  and  the  puri- 
fication of  the  heart  in  both  sexes,  and  the 
proper  organization,  protection,  and  sanctifica- 
tion of  marriage,  are  the  great  forces,  operating 
from  spiritual  stand-points,  which  are  to  reor- 
ganize society.  Whatever  social,  legal,  politi- 
cal, or  religious  revolutions  are  necessary  to 
give  these  forces  their  legitimate  field  and 
power,  will  inevitably  be  accomplished.  Insti- 
tutions, governments,  churches,  will  all  be 
modified  or  perish,  if  they  impede  the  advance 
of  the  great  truth  that  the  married  love  and 
wisdom  of  Man  and  Woman  are  ultimately  to 
govern  the  world. 


St*?! 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PRACTICAL  TENDENCY  OF  OUR  VIEWS. 

LL  truth  has  relation  to  life.  And  one 
of  the  best  tests,  whereby  to  determine 
the  truth  of  any  social,  moral,  philo- 
sophical, or  religious  doctrine,  is  its  obvious 
practical  tendency.  The  tendency  of  error  is 
always  more  or  less  injurious ; but  truth  ever 
tends  to  refine,  exalt,  and  bless  humanity. 

If  the  strata  of  the  earth  are  the  stone-leaves 
of  a spiritual  volume ; if  the  language  of  colors 
is  a treasury  of  wisdom  ; if  the  voice  of  cataracts 
is  a hymn  of  praise,  and  the  perfume  of  flowers 
is  incense  to  God ; why  should  not  the  beauti- 
ful doctrine  of  conjugial  love  come  home  to  our 
hearts  as  a guiding  light  and  a continual  balm? 
It  must  and  will  if  it  be,  indeed,  true. 

Swedenborg’s  teachings  are  all  eminently 
practical.  He  is  called  a visionary  and  an 

ideologist  only  by  those  who  knov/  little  or 

261 


262  The  Sexes;  Here  a7id  Hereafter. 

nothing  of  him  or  his  writings.  His  philosophy 
and  theology  are  thoroughly  utilitarian.  Use 
is  a term  of  special  importance  and  frequent 
occurrence  in  his  system.  The  divine  life  flows 
into  angels  and  men  in  exact  proportion  as  they 
delight  in  uses,  or  love  to  be  engaged  in  em- 
ployments useful  to  themselves  and  others. 
There  is  no  place  in  his  heaven  for  idlers  or 
busybodies  or  recluses,  or  subtle  theorizers 
who  do  not  reduce  their  theories  to  practice. 
The  Christian  life,  as  he  depicts  it,  is  one  of 
rational,  genial,  and  constant  activity. 

A belief  in  the  existence  of  heaven  and  hell, 
and  the  habit  of  looking  forward  and  upward 
to  a purely  spiritual  existence,  has  of  itself  an 
elevating  influence  on  the  soul.  That  power 
is  vastly  enhanced  when  the  mind  has  obtained 
a rational  insight  into  the  laws  and  phenomena 
of  the  spirit-world.  When  we  realize  that 
heaven  is  near  and  within  us,  and  when  we 
form  a clear  conception  of  its  organization, 
inhabitants,  occupations,  laws,  etc.,  we  have 
somethin^  fixed  and  definite  wherewith  to  com- 

O 

pare  or  contrast  similar  or  dissimilar  things  on 
earth.  We  see  and  feel  the  difference  between 


Practical  Tendency  of  our  Views.  263 

the  love  of  self  and  the  world  which  governs 
here  below,  and  that  supreme  love  of  the  Lord 
and  the  neighbor  which  gives  such  transcend- 
ent beauty  and  joy  to  the  better  life.  We  esti- 
mate earthly  things  at  their  true  value.  The- 
ology  is  divested  of  its  gloom  and*  shorn  of  its 
needless  mysteries ; while  death,  seen  in  its 
true  light,  is  stripped  of  its  terror  and  becomes 
only  the  resurrection. 

Especially  useful  in  the  daily  conduct  of  life 
and  battle  with  the  world,  will  be  the  beautiful 
doctrine  of  the  New  Church  concerning  the 
eternity  of  sex,  love,  and  marriage.  Marriage 
as  a principle  and  an  institution  is  as  inevitable 
as  birth  or  death.  What  kind  of  association  or 
intercourse  we  shall  have  with  the  other  sex 
after  death,  will  depend  upon  the  marriage 
union  of  the  good  and  the  true,  or  of  the  evil 
and  the  false,  in  our  own  souls.  Our  life  here 
determines  not  only  whether  we  go  to  heaven  or 
hell,  but  what  scenery  we  shall  find  around  us 
there,  what  house  we  shall  live  in,  what  com- 
panions we  shall  have,  and  the  whole  tone, 
color,  and  character,  subjective  and  objective, 
of  our  being  hereafter. 


264  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

The  doctrine  that  a man  and  woman  united 
by  conjugial  love  and  made  husband  and  wife, 
constitute  spiritually  one  being,  so  that  each 
is  complementary  of  the  other,  leads  to  the 
great  truth  that  monogamy,  or  the  marriage  of 
one  husband  with  one  wife,  is  a fundamental 
principle  or  law  of  the  universe.  All  ((epart- 
ures  from  it  are  deviations  from  the  divine  type. 
Each  man,  each  woman,  has  but  one  comple- 
mentary or  necessary  and  co-ordinate  other 
half.  Fornication  and  prostitution  are,  there- 
fore, deadly  evils,  suffocating  the  spiritual  life 
and  closing  heaven  to  the  soul.  Celibacy  is  a 
wasted  being,  an  unfulfilled  destiny.  Divorces 
and  iterated  marriages  are  proofs  and  measures 
of  “ the  hardness  of  our  hearts,”  and  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  external  over  the  internal 
life. 

The  doctrine  that  men  and  women  joined  in 
wedlock  exercise  special  transforming  or  modi- 
fying influences  upon  each  other,  is  of  incalcu- 
lable importance.  Marry  whom  you  will,  5'ou 
will  never  be  the  same  that  you  were  before. 
You  will  unconsciously  absorb  another  life  into 
your  own,  and  the  two  currents  will  blend  in 


Practical  Tendency  of  oiir  Viexvs.  265 

your  character  and  conduct.  The  woman  ap- 
propriates and  assimilates  the  spiritual  princi- 
ple of  the  man ; and  whether  she  reproduces 
it  in  the  form  of  children  or  not,  it  impresses 
and  transforms  her  own  interior  spiritual  nature. 
How  clearly  Tennyson  understands  it ! — 

“Thou  shalt  lower  to  his  level  daj  by  day, 

What  is  fine  within  thee  growing  coarse  to  sympathize 
with  clay. 

“ As  the  husband  is,  the  wife  is : thou  art  mated  with  a 
clown. 

And  the  grossness  of  his  nature  will  have  weight  to  drag 
thee  down.” 

So  it  is  also  with  the  man.  The  will  of  the 
woman  attaches  itself  to  his  interior  will,  and 
endeavors,  with  inconceivable  subtlety  and 
power,  to  make  it  absolutely  one  with  itself. 
Hence  the  purifying,  spiritualizing,  influence 
of  a good  and  noble  woman.  Hence  also  the 
fearfully  demoralizing,  darkening,  and  deaden- 
ing power  of  an  evil  woman  over  man. 
“ There  is  no  wickedness,”  said  the  Son  of 
Sirach,  “ like  the  wickedness  of  a woman. 
This  great  psychological  law  is  finely  taught  in 

the  tragedy  of  Macbeth,  where  the  fierce  will 
X 


266  The  Sexes ; Here  and  Hereayter. 

of  the  ambitious  wife  seizes  upon  the  soul  of  the 
vacillating  husband,  transforms  it  to  her  own 
type,  and  imbues  it  with  her  own  bloody  pur- 
pose. 

The  cause  of  all  the  woes  in  married  and 
social  life,  is  that  men  and  women,  being  them- 
selves external  and  sensual,  are  attracted  to 
each  other  by  external  and  sensual  motives. 
Physical  beauty  is  esteemed  above  spiritual 
beauty.  External  possessions  are  desired  more 
than  internal  and  heavenly  treasures.  Self 
governs  all — the  love  of  self  and  the  world. 
When  sensuality,  selfishness,  vanity,  ambition, 
are  the  evil  genii  which  bring  the  sexes  to- 
gether, and  which  haunt  in  various  disguises 
the  altar,  the  nuptial  couch,  the  domestic  circle, 
what  can  we  expect  but  discord  and  misery ; 
diseases  of  mind  and  body ; broken  vows ; 
broken  hearts ; the  infernal  marriage  of  the 
evil  and  the  false  in  the  individual  soul;  and 
the  awful  shadows  of  hell  projected  upon  earth? 

Let  men  and  women  learn  that  marriage  is 
the  most  solemn  event  of  life,  determining  our 
spiritual  growth  here  and  our  spiritual  condition 
hereafter  more  than  anything  else.  Let  a pure 


Practical  Tendency  of  oicr  Views.  367 

and  holy  ideal  of  marriage  be  planted  in  the 
youthful  mind.  Let  it  be  super-sensuous,  ra- 
tional, spiritual.  Let  the  question  of  the  heart 
be,  not  what  it  is  to  gain,  but  what  it  is  to  give. 
Let  marriage  be  regarded  as  the  chief  means 
of  regeneration, — as  the  partner  and  co-worker 
with  the  Church  and  the  Word  in  the  salvation 
of  the  soul.  Let  it  be  the  occasion  of  self- 
examinations, watchings,  and  prayers.  Then 
only  will  it  become  the  little  wicket-gate  which 
the  Pilgrim  saw,  and  which  led  to  the  Celestial 
Country. 

It  is  the  part  of  the  man  to  seek  and  woo, 
because  it  is  the  business  of  the  understanding 
which  he  represents,  to  search,  examine,  dis- 
cover, and  organize.  It  is  the  part  of  the  wo- 
man to  determine,  to  refuse  or  accept,  because 
it  is  the  business  of  the  will,  which  she  repre- 
sents, to  act  from  a finer  perception  of  the  fit- 
ness of  things  than  the  grosser  understanding 
possesses. 

Marriage  having  been  agreed  upon,  it  is 
proper  that  there  be  a solemn  betrothal,  and 
that  pledges  of  affection  be  exchanged.  Swe- 
denborg says  that  some  weeks  or  months  ought 


268  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

then  to  elapse  before  its  consummation  ; because 
by  betrothal  the  mind  of  one  is  united  to  that 
of  the  other,  so  as  to  effect  a marriage  of  the 
spirit  previous  to  the  marriage  of  the  bod}". 
This  period  of  betrothal,  when  the  two  loving 
souls  are  secretly  weaving  the  boughs  of  their 
tree  of  life  together,  and  the  marriage  of  the 
spirit  is  being  effected,  is  a period  of  most  ten- 
der and  romantic  interest.  Then  it  is,  that  the 
magnetic  fire  of  love,  struggling  to  descend  into 
the  physical  sphere,  can  impregnate  a ring,  a 
book,  a flower,  a kiss,  with  its  divine  life,  and 
vibrate  exquisitely  to  the  heart, 

“ Striking  the  electric  chain  wherewith  we  are  darklj-  bound.” 

Marriage,  according  to  Swedenborg,  should 
be  consecrated  by  a priest  or  minister  of  reli- 
gion. This  is  because  sex  belongs  to  the  soul 
as  well  as  to  the  body,  and  marriage  is  a divine 
institution.  A pure  and  chaste  love  of  one  and 
one  only,  is  near  akin  to  the  religious  sentiment 
in  man,  and  yearns  instinctively  for  the  recog- 
nition and  blessing  of  a religious  teacher.  To 
withdraw  the  institution  of  marriage  from  the 
supervision  and  benediction  of  the  church,  and 


Practical  Pendency  of  our  Views. 


to  put  it  on  a merely  civil  basis,  is  to  inflict  a 
wound  upon  the  spiritual  interests  of  mankind. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  Faust  when  he  meditated  the 
seduction  of  Margaret. 

The  vows  are  taken  ! — which  the  poet-priest 
of  England  calls  “the  holy  vows!  as  sacred 
as  the  threads  of  life,  secret  as  the  privacies 
of  the  sanctuary,  and  holy  as  the  society  of 
angels.” 

Oh,  that  every  bridal  pair  in  the  first  freshness 
and  charm  of  their  wedded  bliss,  when  they 
are  all  the  world  to  each  other,  and  life  is  tinted 
with  auroral  hues,  could  know  the  wonderful 
and  momentous  secret  of  keeping  their  hearts 
in  a perpetual  spring ; of  retaining  for  ever  the 
exquisite  bloom  and  ecstasy  of  their  early 
love ; of  binding  their  souls  together  in  eternal 
fidelity,  purity,  and  peace;  and  of  making 
their  home  such  a heaven,  that  heaven  must 
inevitably  be  their  home  I 

This  secret  is  not  a matter  of  curious  specu- 
lation or  of  religious  sentiment,  but  one  of 
scientific  precision.  It  is  as  fixed  and  certain 
as  the  theorems  of  geometry  or  the  laws  of 

optics.  The  love  which  unites,  purifies,  and 
X* 


2^0  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

spiritualizes,  and  in  which,  there  is  innocence 
and  peace,  comes  only  from  God ; and  woman 
in  the  act  of  obeying  the  divine  commandments, 
is  the  medium  of  its  reception.  The  wisdom 
which  illumines,  strengthens,  and  guides,  comes 
only  from  God  ; and  man  in  the  act  of  obeying 
the  divine  commandments,  is  the  medium  of  its 
I'eception.  This  love  and  wisdom,  or  spiritual 
heat  and  light,  are  communicated  from  each 
sex  to  the  other,  and  are  married  in  the  hearts 
of  congenial  souls  obedient  to  the  Lord,  so  that 
their  winter  is  turned  into  spring  and  their 
earth  into  heaven ; for  heaven  is  opened  to 
their  inmost  souls,  and  its  glorious  light  and 
peace  and  joy  descend,  producing  all  the  graces 
and  virtues  of  life,  the  happy  mind  and  the 
contented  heart. 

When  husband  and  wife  profess  and  enjoy 
the  same  religion,  and  are  equally  impressed 
with  a sense  of  their  obligations  to  the  Lord 
and  to  each  other ; when  they  make  the  Word 
of  God  their  rule  of  life,  and  read  it  and  pray 
over  it  together  ; when  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
their  children  is  the  first  and  united  aspiration 
of  their  hearts ; we  have  a home  of  heavenly 


Practical  Tendency  of  our  Views. 

order,  purity,  and  peace,  a true  centre  of  divine 
life,  the  ideal  of  Christian  civilization,  and  the 
hope  of  the  world. 

But  when  no  altar  to  God  is  erected  in  the 
house  or  in  the  heart,  there  is  no  direct  channel 
for  the  descent  of  the  Divine  love  and  wisdom. 
The  motives  are  external  and  worldly,  the  love 
sensuous,  the  life  animal,  or  at  most  rational, 
but  not  spiritual.  The  old,  unregenerate,  sel- 
fish, and  sensual  will  rules  in  both  parties. 
There  is  no  true  and  lasting  bond  of  union. 
There  is  no  genuine  Christian  love  of  children 
or  of  each  other.  Everything  is  at  the  mercy 
of  time  and  accident  and  fortune. 

Such  marriages,  however,  are  not  entirely 
without  their  spiritual  use  ; for  the  uses  of  mar- 
riage are  so  holy  and  heavenly,  that  something 
of  its  great  power  and  glory  will  flow  down 
into  its  merely  external  foi'm.  The  experiences 
of  married  life,  the  mutual  cares,  labors,  re- 
sponsibilities, and  trials,  even  its  collisions  and 
temptations,  are  means  of  bringing  to  light  the 
hitherto  concealed  evils  of  the  parties,  convict- 
ing of  sin,  awakening  sympathy,  and  kindling 
the  sparks  of  their  better  and  purer  nature. 


272  The  Sexes;  Here  ajid  Hereafter. 

The  proud  man  who  would  kill  his  neighbor  for 
telling  him  his  faults,  will  bear  the  reproaches 
of  his  wife.  The  selfish  woman  whom  noth- 
ing softened  before,  will  find  her  heart  melting 
down  in  the  sweet  light  of  her  children’s  eyes. 
And  many  an*- irreligious  couple  who  began 
their  married  life  far  apart  in  spirit,  descend^to 
the  river  of  death,  weary  and  woim,  wmunded 
and  broken  in  the  battle  of  life,  but  with  new 
and  enlarged  sympathies,  with  new  humility  in 
their  souls,  looking  upward  to  God. 

A wise  and  thoughtful  man  yearning  for  the 
spiritual  life — what  shall  he  do  when  he  finds 
himself  mated  with  a vain,  silly,  selfish,  and 
heartless  woman?  His  wisdom  seems  like  the 
light  of  winter,  cold  and  fruitless ; but  it  may 
accomplish  much  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his 
household  by  faithfully  living  out,  in  word  and 
deed,  the  duties  of  man  to  woman,  of  the  un- 
derstanding to  the  will,  so  well  described  b}* 
Jeremy  Taylor. 

“ The  dominion  of  a man,”  sa3’s  he,  “ over 
his  wife,  is  no  other  than  as  the  soul  rules  the 
body ; for  which  it  takes  a mighty  care,  and 
uses  it  with  a delicate  tenderness;  and  cares 


Practical  Tendency  of  our  Views.  273 

for  it  in  all  contingencies,  and  watches,  to  keep 
it  from  all  evils ; and  studies  to  make  for  it  fair 
provisions,  and  very  often  is  led  by  its  inclina- 
tions and  desires  ; and  does  never  contradict  its 
appetites  but  when  they  are  evil,  and  then  else 
not  without  some  trouble  and  sorrow ; and  its 
government  comes  only  to  this,  that  it  furnishes 
the  body  with  light  and  understanding.  The 
soul  governs  because  the  body  cannot  else  be 
happy ; but  the  government  is  no  other  than 
provision.” 

The  pure,  spiritually-minded  woman,  who  is 
wedded,  or  rather  yoked,  to  an  unworthy  hus- 
band who  by  a false  and  evil  life  is  gradually 
effacing  the  stamp  of  humanity  from  his  soul — 
what  shall  she  do?  As  man  works  by  wisdom 
or  light,  so  woman  works  by  love  or  heat.  She 
ffghts,  conquers,  lives,  by  love.  The  love  of  a 
true  Christian  wife  is  like  the  charity  described 
by  Paul,  and  which,  he  says,  is  greater  than 
faith  or  hope ; which  suffers  long  and  is  kind ; 
which  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly  ; seeketh 
not  her  own ; is  not  easily  provoked ; thinketh 
no  evil ; which  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 

things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things. 

18 


^74  The  Sexes;  Here  and  Hereafter. 

This  charity,  in  the  heart  of  a good  wife,  is 
more  powerful  than  “ the  tongues  of  men  and 
angels.” 

A v/oman  attaches  her  husband  to  her  by 
attaching  herself  to  her  husband.  Let  her 
ever  reveal  to  him  the  beautiful,  whose  soul  is 
the  good  and  the  true.  Let  her  learn  the  deep 
significance  of  a rose  in  her  hair ; a flower  on 
the  mantel ; a smiling  face  at  the  door ; the 
snatch  of  an  old,  sweet  song  at  her  work.  Let 
her  see  her  husband  in  all  things ; and  so  thor- 
oughly identify  herself  with  him,  that  he  shall 
find  the  angel  of  his  better  nature  in  every 
lineament  of  her  face  and  in  every  gentle  tone 
of  her  voice. 

The  regenerating  influences  of  husband  upon 
wife  and  of  wife  upon  husband  are  so  great,  so 
subtile,  so  lasting,  that  parties  are  brought  to- 
gether by  the  Divine  Providence  for  the  sake 
of  these  secret  ministries  of  marriage.  Only 
the  revealing  light  of  another  world  can  show 
how  much  spiritual  good  has  been  accomplished 
to  both  parties,  even  where  their  external  union 
seemed  singularly  uncongenial  and  unhappy. 
The  only  condition  for  the  reception  of  every 


Practical  Pendency  of  our  Views.  275 

blessing  which  the  Heavenly  Father  can  give 
us  consistently  with  our  eternal  good,  is  the 
faithful  and  religious  performance  of  each  one’s 
duty. 

Therefore  the  bonds  of  marriage  are  not  to 
be  lightly  broken,  and  the  soul  permitted  to  go 
ranging  after  new  affinities.  The  true  spiritual 
wife  is  surely  found  only  in  the  spiritual  world. 
The  essential  thing  in  this  world  is,  not  to  find 
the  conjugial  j)artner,  but  to  acquire  and  -pre- 
serve the  conjugial  principle  in  the  heart. 
This  may  frequently  be  best  accomplished  by 
living  with  an  uncongenial  person,  faithfully 
and  religiously  performing  all  the  duties  re- 
quired by  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  bond,  just 
as  if  he  or  she  were  “ the  one  beautiful  soul” 
of  our  celestial  future. 

If  sex  were  purely  physical,  if  marriage  were 
only  a civil  alliance,  if  our  material  life  were 
all,  then  our  philosophy  and  theology  would  be 
vain.  But  if  our  souls  are  male  and  female  ; 
if  marriage  is  spiritual  and  eternal ; if  this  life 
is  the  seed-field  in  which  the  germ  of  a better 
life  is  planted ; if  wedlock  is  a divinely  ap- 
pointed means  of  bringing  the  spiritual  influ- 


2^6  The  Sexes J Uei-e  and  Ilereaftei'. 

ence  of  the  sexes  on  each  other  into  orderl}^ 
and  beneficent  activity ; if  the  character  of  the 
husband  and  wife  determines  that  of  the  father 
and  mother,  the  neighbor  and  the  citizen ; if  a 
life  of  obedience  to  God  in  the  state  of  matri- 
mony is  peculiarly  rich  in  spiritual  blessings ; 
then  are  the  teachings  of  Swedenborg  on  these 
lofty  themes  of  immense  practical  importance 
in  the  regeneration  of  the  individual  and  the 
reorganization  of  human  society. 

The  beginning  of  evil  as  wonderfully  de- 
scribed in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  third  chap- 
ter of  Genesis,  was  the  loss  of  married  har- 
mony between  the  will  and  the  understanding. 
That  perversion  of  the  good  and  the  true  in  the 
individual  soul,  was  the  cause  of  all  the  corre- 
sponding perversions  in  the  sphere  of  our  sexual 
life.  The  way  back  to  that  blissful  state  repre- 
sented by  the  Garden  of  Eden,  is  through  in- 
dividual regeneration,  and  through  marriage 
made  pure  and  holy,  by  a life  according  to  the 
Divine  commandments.  Swedenborg  has  given 
us  some  interesting  accounts  of  marriage  in 
heaven — accounts  so  beautiful,  so  heavenly, 
that  our  poor  earth-stained  souls  regard  them 


Practical  Pendency  of  our  Views.  277 


as  fancies  or  dreams — as  a grand  ideal  for  our 
own  aspirations,  our  hopes,  our  prayers. 

When  the  lost  harmony  between  the  will  and 
understanding  is  restored,  moral  and  physical 
disorders  will  cease.  The  evil,  the  false,  the 
unbeautiful,  will  disappear  from  man  and  na- 
ture. History  will  then  be  the  harmonic  de- 
velopment of  a loving  brotherhood  under  the 
smile  of  the  Divine  Father.  The  New  Jerusa- 
lem will  descend  from  God  out  of  heaven, 
“prepared  as  a bride  adorned  for  her  husband.” 
And  thenceforth  the  marriages  of  men  on  earth 

will  be  similar  to  those  of  the  angels  in  heaven. 

Y 


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Heaven  and  its  Wonders,  and  Hell. 

From  Things  Heard  and  Seen.  By  Emancbl  Swedenborg.  From 
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and  Peace  in  Heaven — on  Infants  in  Heaven  — on  Employments  in 
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Angelic  Wisdom  Concerning  the  Divine  Love  and 
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